Zero Rebirth
by Brother Mirtillo
Summary: With the city and Satellite reunited, Satellite's kids can enjoy more cheerful days than they've ever had. But they're learning that what was once a game isn't so simple anymore, and their newest opponents play for keeps.
1. Defense Draw

_Let's get this clear up front: I don't own any of the non-original characters. You already knew that - it's true by definition. If you take umbrage with that act, economically or otherwise, send me a message so we can talk it over._

_For everyone else, please post comments on what makes my writing good or bad - I want to be a better writer, but it's easier for me to learn what the audience wants when someone actually *says* something. (I'm also a beginner at honorifics, and I definitely don't know Japanese culture, so feel free to set me straight there.) Any other footnotes/disclaimers can be found on my profile._

_Thanks for visiting, and enjoy the show!_

* * *

"Takuya-kun, slow down before you knock something over!"

The boy slowed to a stop, setting his bowl of chopped potatoes on the counter before looking back at his instructor with his eager brown eyes. "Sorry, Martha. But the water's almost ready, isn't it?"

The other, a woman with simple dark brown hair, cinnamon skin, and a no-nonsense stance, smiled back and answered, "Yes, but there's no need to hurry. We've got plenty of hands here to get everything done." Indeed, the kitchen was crowded with kids slicing vegetables for the soup and mixing ingredients for Martha's special bread. Chatter mingled with the noise of cooking, and a bowl of carrots had already been dropped because of a surprise traffic jam.

"Well... I can get the onions."

"Atsumi-chan already has that job," said Martha, looking to the taller girl across the room, who was working as energetically as she always did when she and her sister visited for dinner. Martha had given her this task because she was the only one who could cut five onions without stopping to clear her eyes, and today Atsumi was looking to break that record.

Takuya was still looking around the kitchen for a job, and Martha admired that a boy barely half her height could have such energy. She patted him on the shoulder and said, "You've done a good job already. Don't worry - there's enough help to make more than enough food for everyone."

"Don't forget Kazumi-chan, too."

"Of course, her too. Go on outside - we'll be done before you know it."

Arriving outside, the sunset shone through Takuya's shaggy dark hair. The older kids might still be back in the kitchen, but the rest of the younger kids under Martha's care were still outside, enjoying the last rays of light coming through the clouds overhead. Some were playing ball, and the littlest kids had all grouped together for a game of tag. There was plenty of space in Martha's yard, and Takuya had just decided to practice on his skates when he caught sight of the boy running up the street. "Hey, Shun!"

But his friend didn't stop until he got to the front stoop. Hands on his knees, he gasped for breath, sweat running from his tan hair down his face. "Takuya... it's..." Shun had to cough, "it's Micchan..."

"Huh? What about him?"

Pulling one big breath, Shun blurted out, "That Kobayashi guy found him! They're dueling now!"

"What? No!" The kids nearby who hadn't heard Shun's words definitely heard Takuya, who immediately added, "Where are they?"

"On... on the road to the dump... there's a subway entrance near... Wait, Takuya!" But the other had already run off.

As Takuya tore down the pavement, all the stories came back to him. _Kobayashi Ichiro..._ For the last couple months, kids had come running back to Martha's after this guy found them and challenged them to duels. He always promised that, if they won... well, then he'd leave them alone. The fact that he was older and bigger than any of them made sure that no one had ever asked what would happen if they refused to duel at all. But Kobayashi had won every one of those duels, and every time, he took a card from the other kid's deck.

Of course, they'd told Martha about it, but even she couldn't do anything. She had her hands full taking care of them at the house, and the few kids who had met Ichiro's father said he was scary, touchy, or just plain mean. As a result, the best they could do was try and stick together. Kobayashi didn't ever come near Martha's house, and all of his challenges had been against kids who were alone. The fact that not all of them had duel disks - or even full forty-card decks - didn't stop him. Most of the kids had lost track of how many were beaten. Takuya hadn't.

Takuya thought, _There's no way I'm letting him get away with this! Why... why did it have to be Micchan's turn borrowing that duel disk?_ Pausing for a second, he listened, and he heard noise from the next street over. Running to the source, he rounded the corner and found the fight. "Micchan!"

The stout boy with brown hair and overalls looked back, calling, "Takuya-kun?"

"Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah. I'm winning!"

"The hell you are!" This other voice made Takuya spin around to stare open-mouthed at the speaker. He was also a big guy, but he had muscle as well as fat on him. His dirty-blond hair was cut short, and his sharp eyes flashed as he yelled, "No way am I going to lose to you!" Takuya turned away to size up the playing field. Each of them had a duel disk, so holographic versions of their playing cards loomed in front of them. On the one side, Kobayashi had 1600 life points remaining and one monster. Takuya recognized it as Koumori Dragon - a purple serpentine dragon with yellow claws.

_**Koumori Dragon**_ - Dark Dragon LV4 (1200 DEF)

But Micchan's field had a few cards, the sole monster being a snail-like spirit. It was shrouded in mist, which Takuya recognized as the Mist Body spell that protected monsters from defeat in battle. Furthermore, Micchan had 2200 life points left - a nice advantage. "Whoa... good job, Micchan-kun!"

"Ha, thanks."

"Hey, I'm not done yet!" Kobayashi placed a couple of the cards held in his hand onto his disk, calling, "I set one card and summon Oni Tank T-34!" A projection of the first card appeared, remaining face-down, but the second conjured a bright glow that revealed a massive tank with a distorted red mask for a face.

_**Oni Tank T-34**_ - Earth Machine LV4 (1400 ATK)

"I end my turn."

"Ha, now I can use my trap card again. Go, Labyrinth of Nightmare!" Takuya watched as the already-face-up card emitted howling clouds of smoke that shrouded the opponent's field. The dragon moved from a defensive stance to a combative one, and the tank did the opposite.

_**Koumori Dragon**_ - 1500 ATK

_**Oni Tank T-34**_ - 1700 DEF

"Now it's my turn - draw!" Eagerly looking at the card he drew from his disk, Micchan called out, "All right! I play the equip spell, Elf's Light! I'll use it on my Servant of Catabolism, and I'll switch that monster to attack mode." The aquatic spirit raised itself up, and light began to glow from within it as the spell's power took effect.

_**Servant of Catabolism**_ - Light Aqua LV 3 (700 ATK... 1100 ATK / 500 DEF... 300 DEF)

"Now my monster uses its effect to attack you directly!" The coiled creature sprang into the air, swooping down to smash into Kobayashi head-on.

_**Kobayashi**_ - 1600 LP... 500 LP

"I end my turn, so my trap activates again." The glowing monster dropped back into a defensive stance. "Just one more attack and I win!"

Takuya shook his head in surprise. _For once, he's got a good combo! In the end phase of each player's turn, Labyrinth of Nightmare switches the positions of all that player's face-up monsters. Now that Servant of Catabolism is in defense position, Micchan won't take damage if a stronger monster attacks that monster. And with Mist Body, his monster won't be destroyed by the battle either!_

"Heh... too bad you won't _get_ another turn. Draw." Kobayashi didn't even bother looking at his next card before calling, "Activate trap card, Meteorain!"

Takuya gasped as the face-down card lifted up, but Micchan just stammered, "What... what does that do?"

"For the rest of this turn, if my monsters attack your defending monster and they have more attack strength than your monster's defense, the difference in power is dealt to you as battle damage."

"No... no way!"

"I switch Oni-Tank T-34 to attack position! Attack his monster!" The tank fired a barrage of missiles that burned all the brighter with the meteor trap's power. Battering their target mercilessly, the wave of explosions engulfed the aquatic monster and his owner. Even as the smoke cleared, the surviving monster showed every mark of defeat.

_**Micchan**_ - 2200 LP... 1100 LP

"Game over. Koumori Dragon, attack!" The lithe monster breathed deep and launched a stream of flames at the limp target, incinerating it with the decisive blast.

_**Micchan**_ - 1100 LP... 0 LP

"No!" Takuya cried out as all the cards vanished from the field and Micchan dropped to the ground in shock. But his voice wasn't the only one that had called out, and he looked around to see that quite a few of the kids from Martha's had made it to the scene. Even Shun had caught up with them, spurred to run the remaining few meters

As the winning duelist deactivated his disk, he looked around, glaring at the extra witnesses. Even so, he strode across to Micchan, saying, "You lost, and that means I get one card from your deck." Thinking for a second, a glint came into his eye. "You have a Spirit of the Harp. That sounds good."

The words brought Micchan back to his senses, and he scooped his cards together. "No - not that one! That's my best defense monster!"

Takuya turned to everyone else, saying, "He... he can't do this! We have to do something!" But the others were either looking away or in shock, and no one's answer was louder than a mumble. "Guys? Come on..." He even turned to Shun, who was still gasping for breath, too numb to say anything.

Micchan tried to crawl away, but he stumbled and fell in the effort. Kobayashi was about to pounce when he noticed a pounding noise - a _running_ noise - He turned, catching the tackle on the shoulder, staggering back but still standing. But the other guy was trying to grab at the disk on his other arm, so Kobayashi pushed forward and threw off the offending weight.

Takuya hit the ground hard, but he rolled with the impact and stopped in a kneeling position, eyes burning as he glared at his opponent. He leapt up again, bouncing a bit on his feet before dashing forward again. When he was a couple feet away, Kobayashi lanced out with a punch, but Takuya dodged aside and went for the other's deck again. A rapid spin barely kept the disk out of reach, and Kobayashi went to grab him with his free hand. Takuya squirmed away before the grip could tighten, falling back in time to see the other going for another punch. He ducked under that one, but he was too close, so he stepped back quickly, moving in front of Micchan.

Kobayashi wheeled around and caught his breath enough to yell, "Hold still a minute!"

"No way! You're not getting any more cards from us!"

"Yeah? Who's gonna stop me?"

"Me!" The single word set everyone else stammering and protesting, but Kobayashi just laughed.

"A small fry like you? Who do you think you are - Fudo Yusei?"

"I... I'm Maeda Takuya, and you're not going to beat me!" He stood as tall as he could, hoping that he wasn't really tired or scared.

But the other looked past and caught sight of Micchan huddled on the ground. "Well, I know how you won't be able to run away. Duel me!"

"What?" The words put Takuya off balance, but only for a second. He had an idea, and hopefully it wasn't too crazy. "Fine, but we'll raise the stakes. If I beat you, you give back every card you've stolen from us!"

The air went dead silent. Kobayashi was completely speechless, and he blinked a few times before his sneer came back. "You... you little... all right - deal." Everyone else's amazement at this agreement vanished when he added, "But if I win... if I win, I get to take that many cards from your deck!"

Takuya's glare broke, and for a second, his eyes fell as he thought hard about all that. Shaking his head, his gaze drifted to see all the others standing silent and motionless, so far away. They were all afraid, but they were also all looking at him. He took a deep breath and stared back at Kobayashi. "Deal!"

The other kids chattered anxiously as the two opponents moved a good distance apart, Takuya having borrowed the disk from Micchan, who stood by Shun, calling out, "Go, Takuya-kun! Beat this guy!"

Takuya barely heard them, shuffling his deck with hands that he tried to keep from trembling. Settling down, he got an idea and picked out an extra card from his pocket. Adding it to his deck and shuffling again, he whispered, "Ushio-san..." His glare burned forth, and he and Kobayashi loaded their decks into their duel disks at the same time. The disks activated, and they each drew five cards as they received 4000 life points each.

They began their fight with one combined word: "Duel!"

Takuya called, "I'll go first. Draw!" Checking his cards carefully, he continued, "I'll set one card and then summon Giant Rat in attack position." From the summon's glow, the massive rodent appeared, clutching a human skull that seemed a toy in its paw.

_**Giant Rat**_ - LV4 Earth Beast (1400 ATK)

"I end my turn."

The kids were surprised to see such a strong monster off the bat. One boy wondered, "Are all of Takuya's monsters this strong?"

Shun answered, "A few of them, yeah."

Hearing this, Kobayashi only smirked. "Draw!" Picking out a card from his hand, he called, "I summon Girochin Kuwagata in attack position!" This monster was a huge insect, pincers gnashing as it stood tall.

_**Girochin Kuwagata**_ - LV 4 Wind Insect (1700 ATK)

Takuya grimaced when he saw it, but everyone was caught off guard when one kid yelled, "Hey, that's my card!" They turned to the boy who had spoken, who went on, "That's the card he took from me!"

"Yeah? Well, it's mine now. I activate the continuous spell, Banner of Courage! This card gives all my monsters 200 attack points each battle phase. Go, Girochin Kuwagata - attack his monster!"

_**Girochin Kuwagata**_ - 1700 ATK... 1900 ATK

The insect pounced at its target, crushing the rat in its clutches. With a cry, the rat burst into a thousand shards of light.

_**Takuya**_ - 4000 LP... 3500 LP

But Takuya rallied back, "When Giant Rat goes to the graveyard from battle, I can summon any earth-attribute monster with 1500 attack points or less from my deck!"

"Hah - a limit like that means you can't beat my monster."

"Really?" Sifting through his deck, he called, "I summon Prevent Rat in attack position!" The blue-armored rodent appeared on the field, claws poised for combat.

_**Prevent Rat**_ - LV 4 Earth Beast (500 ATK)

Such a low attack level caused several kids to groan in disappointment until Shun reminded them, "Hey, don't underestimate it! That monster has 2000 defense points, so all Takuya has to do is put it into defense position next turn."

Kobayashi shot back, "Yeah? That's too bad, because my next turn's gonna give my monster 200 more attack points, enough to-"

_**Girochin Kuwagata**_ - 1900 ATK... 1700 ATK

"-wait, what? Why'd my monster get weaker?"

Empty faces answered him until Micchan choked back a laugh. "Even I know that one! Banner of Courage only works when you battle - after that, it goes away."

Everyone else burst out laughing. "It's his own spell and he didn't know that?" "What an idiot!"

"Knock it off!"

The voice silenced all of them, and Takuya continued, saying, "He made one mistake - so what? That doesn't make him an idiot!"

Kobayashi stammered, "Hey, I... I don't need you arguing for me!" Snatching a card from his hand, he spat, "One card face-down. I end my turn."

"Draw." This new card brought a smirk to Takuya's face, and he called, "I release my Prevent Rat!" His monster vanished with a shimmer, and he finished, "I set one monster in defense position."

The anticlimax left the other kids whispering, "I didn't know he had monsters of _that_ high a level..." "Why didn't he attack?" "That must be a really strong defending monster! This is gonna be awesome!"

Kobayashi just smiled. "High-level monster, huh? Let's see what it is. Activate trap card, Shadow of Eyes! This works when you set a monster in defense position. Your monster then gets forced into face-up attack position, and it can't use a flip effect!" His trap generated a cloud of perfumed vapor that shrouded the hidden card. All at once, it glowed, and a colossal mechanical monster stood up from the summon.

_**Woodborg Inpachi**_ - Fire Machine LV 5 (500 ATK)

"Hah, got you! Too bad your monster's got no attack strength."

Takuya swallowed his disappointment, shook his head roughly, and looked back at the cards in his hand. "I set one card. I end my turn."

"Draw!" This time, only one person was smiling with the new draw. "Perfect - I activate the spell card, Double Summon! This gives me an extra normal summon this turn." Seizing two cards from his hand, Kobayashi called, "I summon Great White and Dark Elf in attack position!" The muscle-armed shark and dark-skinned sorceress appeared to his field, fighting fit.

_**Great White**_ - Water Fish LV 4 (1600 ATK)

_**Dark Elf**_ - Dark Spellcaster LV 4 (2000 ATK)

More shouts of protest came from the crowd. "That's my monster!" "Mine, too!" "You got a lot of nerve using our cards like this!"

"Winners keepers - they're helping me now!"

"You sure about that?"

Takuya's confident tone made his opponent look back. "What did you say?"

"Activate trap card, Gift of the Mystical Elf! This gives me 300 life points for every monster card on the field. Thanks to you, there are four monsters, so that's 1200 life points." Even as he spoke, the glow around him boosted his score significantly.

_**Takuya**_ - 3500 LP... 4700 LP

"Go, Takuya!" "Yeah, our monsters helped him after all."

"But it's still not enough for you to save you! Time to battle, so my spell card makes all my monsters stronger."

_**Girochin Kuwagata**_ - 1700 ATK... 1900 ATK

_**Great White**_ - 1600 ATK... 1800 ATK

_**Dark Elf**_ - 2000 ATK... 2200 ATK

"That's 5900 points in all, so you're done!"

Takuya, still looking between the three monsters, eventually answered, "Huh... you're right, it _is_ 5900. That's some fast math!"

Kobayashi stammered at such a comment, then pressed on. "Forget it! Great White, attack his monster!" Teeth chomping in anticipation, the monster flew at its target, clawed arms outstretched. Just before they could hit, the giant machine dissolved into a swirling cloud of light. "What the-"

"Activate quick-play spell, Mystik Wok! First, I release one of my monsters, and then I choose either its attack or defense points, and those points get added to my life points. I choose defense, and Woodborg Inpachi has 2500 defense points!" The bright cloud surrounded its owner, sending Takuya's score soaring even further.

_**Takuya**_ - 4700 LP... 7200 LP

"You little... Fine then! Great White, attack him directly!" The monster pounced the remaining distance almost before Takuya saw it move, slashing its claw straight across his face.

_**Takuya**_ - 7200 LP... 5400 LP

He barely had time to wince before Kobayashi called, "Girochin Kuwagata, attack!" The giant insect's shriek echoed as it bore down on its prey, driving this attack through Takuya's midsection.

_**Takuya**_ - 5400 LP... 3500 LP

"For my last monster to attack, I have to pay 1000 life points first..."

_**Kobayashi**_ - 4000 LP... 3000 LP

"...but it's worth it for damage like this. Dark Elf, direct attack!" The last monster held her hands together, conjuring a howling sphere of magic. With a yell, she blasted the dark beam, and it lanced straight and true, hitting the target with a crashing explosion.

_**Takuya**_ - 3500 LP... 1300 LP

Working hard to regain his breath, Takuya nearly dropped to his knees, but he managed to stop his tilt first. Gritting his teeth, he wrenched himself back to an upright position.

"Had enough yet?"

With a couple deep breaths, he found his voice again. "You wish."

"I end my turn."

_**Girochin Kuwagata**_ - 1900 ATK... 1700 ATK

_**Great White**_ - 1800 ATK... 1600 ATK

_**Dark Elf**_ - 2200 ATK... 2000 ATK

"My turn!" Takuya's eyes focused on his opponent's strongest monster before he called, "Draw!" _All right! Here we go..._ "I summon Sangan in attack position!" The squat, three-eyed imp leapt to the field with an eager chatter.

_**Sangan**_ - Dark Fiend LV 3 (1000 ATK)

Kobayashi's tense stare broke apart into laughter. "That's your comeback? You really are slipping!"

Takuya just picked out another card. "Thanks for the practice, Shun! I've got it now."

His friend perked up at these words. "Oh man... This is gonna be good!"

"I activate the spell card, Polymerization! I fuse together Sangan from my field and Mystical Sheep #1 from my hand." The field gained a swirling field of light that enveloped both monsters, and the dark blue sheep glowed further from the swaying of the pendulum on its tail. "My new monster can be used as a replacement for any fusion material monster, and I'll replace Witch of the Black Forest. Go, fusion summon!" The forms of the two monsters spiraled together before the final flash of light revealed a new monster: a cloaked wizard with the same buggy eyes as the imp, staff at the ready.

_**Sanwitch**_ - Dark Spellcaster LV 6 (2100 ATK)

Everyone was talking at once. "No way - a level _six_ monster?" "Awesome!" Shun pointed out, "He's still got another trick left."

Takuya continued, "When Sangan goes from the field to the graveyard, I can move a monster with 1500 attack points or less from my deck to my hand." Going straight to the card and holding it high, he announced, "I choose Card Trooper!"

Thunderstruck, Kobayashi stammered, "C-c- Card Trooper? Where'd you find a rare card like that?"

"Whoa... he got it..." "He got his Rare Card!" Micchan added, "Of course he got it. That's the ace card of his Security deck."

"What?" Nothing had caught Kobayashi off guard as thoroughly as this statement. "You? You want to be in Sector Security?"

Takuya smiled and nodded. "You bet I do. This guy's gonna help me do it, too. He may not be much right now, but all it takes is a little backup." Looking at his deck, he added, "That's why I've got to keep supporting my monsters. They'll be the defensive wall until it's time to team up for the attack!" His clear voice rang out all the more as he called, "Go, Sanwitch - attack his Dark Elf!" With a determined grunt, the wizard leapt at the opponent, firing one beam of magic straight through her heart. With only a transfixed cry, she vanished.

_**Kobayashi**_ - 3000 LP... 2900 LP

As the other kids cheered, Takuya snatched the other card left in his hand. "I set one card and end my turn."

Kobayashi stammered as he looked at the field with fresh eyes. Someone was saying that neither of his monsters could stand up to Takuya's fusion monster, even with the spell's power-up. Looking at these monsters, he realized the truth of this, and neither had any worthwhile defensive power. "My monsters... they're not strong enough..." Looking at his rejuvenated opponent, for a second he had a vision of a strapping officer in uniform and helmet, sirens flashing as the reinforcements closed in...

His eyes shut tight, and he shook his head furiously. Looking down, he caught sight of the last card left in his hand, and his glare hardened again. "No... I won't lose... Not this close..." Seizing the top of his deck, he yelled, "My turn! Draw!"

Eager to see it all fall apart, they watched him closely. His face broke, and he could only stammer. It was a few seconds before they could hear him.

"... I got it... I got it! I GOT IT!" Holding the card high, he shouted with a vengeance, "Take this, Maeda! I activate the ritual spell, Turtle Oath!"

The new card appeared on the field as a staff topped with a wrinkled green stone even taller than its master. When they found words, all they managed was, "Ritual spell?" "What's that supposed to be?" Everyone looked at Shun, who could only stammer, "What? I- I don't know."

Kobayashi smiled, "Guess I'll have to explain it to you. This is a spell that summons a type of monster called a ritual monster. Each monster has its own spell, and to use it, you have to release monsters from your field or your hand, as long as their total level stars equal at least as much as the ritual monster's level."

Shun closed his eyes to remember. "His first monster is level four... and so's his second monster."

Micchan responded, "Then... he could summon a level eight monster?"

This froze everyone up, until Shun added, "Wait, he said _at least_ as many levels! The new monster doesn't _have_ to use all eight stars." Everyone else looked back at the field to see how this could play out...

...until Kobayashi turned over the last card in his hand. The illustration, the power stats - all were ignored except for the level. "Aah! Level eight!"

He swung the card to his disk in triumph. "I release the level four Girochin Kuwagata and level four Great White!" The scaly staff shot out two jets of steam that engulfed the chosen monsters. Each seized up before dissolving into light that became part of the streams, flowing back into the staff. The artifact glowed, and its stem vanished, leaving only the upper portion. With a groaning rush, it began growing until it was twice as tall as anyone else. But it also contorted, becoming more sleek and turning to a crimson shade.

All at once, a pair of spiny legs burst through the shell and planted themselves on the ground. Higher up, two massive clawed arms burst from corresponding points in the shell. Additional claw spikes sprouted from the back, and from the uppermost center sprang a single eye that blinked only once before focusing tightly. The newborn creature towered high as it flexed its new limbs and roared its arrival, with its master calling, "Ritual summon! Crab Turtle!"

_**Crab Turtle**_ - Water Aqua LV 8 (ATK 2550)

Several of the girls hid their eyes from the distorted creature, and and even a few of the boys preferred to look elsewhere. Takuya and his monster were thoroughly dwarfed by the... _thing_.

"This is it, Takuya... Crab Turtle, destroy his monster!" Magic surged around the creature as its claws flexed with the spell.

_**Crab Turtle**_ - 2550 ATK... 2750 ATK

Spiny feet digging into the ground, it charged at the opponent in zigzagging bounds, arms churning with each stride. When its shadow fell across the enemy, it planted its feet, one arm already drawn back.

The exploding crash knocked Takuya off of his feet and set his head ringing like a bell. His monster had been skewered to the ground before it had even had time to cry out.

_**Takuya**_ - 1300 LP... 650 LP

_**Crab Turtle**_ - 2750 ATK... 2550 ATK

"I end my turn. You're finished."

The taunts bounced dully in Takuya's ears as he lay on the ground. He forced his eyes open, but pushing himself to his knees only made the dizziness rush back. He slumped forward again, hands barely holding him up. _It's not working... nothing's working! No matter how much I fight, he keeps coming back! How am I supposed to stop him when he's so much stronger than I am?_ Shuddering to look at the field, he squeezed his eyes shut, trying and failing to block out the voices pleading for him to continue.


	2. Heavy Slump

"What's the matter, Maeda? Too scared to get up?"

Takuya's eyes flashed at this insult, and he pushed himself back up to his feet. The crowd of kids watched him closely, a couple of them calling for him to beat Kobayashi. But others wondered, "What if Takuya loses?" "Don't say that! He can't lose!" "But if he loses, he'll lose a lot of cards from his deck!" "How can he beat a high-level monster like that?"

Takuya said, "I'm... I'm not afraid of you!"

"Then you're an idiot. You haven't played anything that can stand up to Crab Turtle! I'll knock out any small-fry monster you throw at me!"

Staring at the clawed behemoth, Takuya thought, _He's right... I haven't summoned anything that can beat that thing. Level eight, 2550 attack points..._ He shook his head, realizing, _What am I thinking? I can't give up! A real Security never backs down from danger!_ "I've still got a chance. I'll find a way to beat you."

"Bull. You don't know how, just like you'll never know how to be a Security."

Dead silence answered these words, until Takuya managed, "What... what did you just say?"

The smile grew as Kobayashi pressed this new opening. "Yeah, you heard me. You just think you're a Security, but look at you! You're just a shrimp! Why don't you leave the fights to the grown-ups?"

Takuya's mouth gaped, but it was Micchan that yelled out from the sidelines, "You jerk! How can you say that? Takuya's got more guts than you'll ever have! If he wants to be a Security, that's what he's gonna do!"

Shun chimed in, "Not only that, Takuya hasn't said a word to insult you, but you go and insult him like this? You've got no right!"

Everyone else took up the call. "Go on, Takuya!" "Show him up!" "Beat this guy!"

The barrage of jeers nearly set Kobayashi off again, and for an instant, Takuya pictured making this guy pay for ever making fun of his dream. Then he shook his head and muttered, "No."

The other looked at him and said, "No what?"

"I'm not beating you because you're saying this stuff. I'm beating you because you can't do this! You can't just pick on us and think you can get away with it. You mess with one of us, and you mess with all of us!"

The other kids cheered these words, and Kobayashi flinched at the unexpected support. "Just make your move!"

Takuya yelled, "Draw!" He didn't even hesitate before looking at the card. "What? I..." He blinked and looked down, but his gaze fell on the other card already in his hand. Immediately, he looked back up at Kobayashi, sizing up him and his monster. Glancing once more at the other kids, he nodded and muttered, "I'll take that chance."

Uncertainty edged into Kobayashi's eyes. "What's the deal? You gonna play a card or not?"

With a card in each hand, Takuya called, "You bet I am. I summon Card Trooper in attack position!" The diminutive robot rushed from the summon's glow, surveying the field and holding its cannon-tipped arms at the ready.

_**Card Trooper**_ - Earth Machine LV 3 (ATK 400)

The kids hovered on the brink of cheering; sure, it was a small monster, but now that Takuya had his Rare Card on the field, it had to be good.

Kobayashi instead muttered, "This is what you worked so hard to get... It doesn't matter! Bring it on!"

Takuya said, "I activate Card Trooper's effect, and to do it, I send up to three cards from the top of my deck to the graveyard." He took and released a deep breath, then quickly pulled the three cards. He looked at them, and he inhaled sharply as his eyes opened wide. He smiled and called out, "I send Red Medicine, Claw Reacher, and D.D. Trainer to the graveyard! For each of these cards, Card Trooper gains 500 attack points until the end phase!"

_**Card Trooper**_ - ATK 400... ATK 1900

"1500 points at one time..." Regathering his anger, he called, "But it's still not enough to beat Crab Turtle."

"I activate my trap card, Backup Soldier! When I have at least five monsters in my graveyard, I can return three of them to my hand, as long as they have no more than 1500 attack points and no effects. I choose Claw Reacher, Woodborg Inpachi, and Prevent Rat!"

The other kids got more excited at seeing Takuya get extra cards, but Shun wondered, "Is that going to help him? He already summoned Card Trooper - he can't summon any of those cards this turn."

Kobayashi heard this, but so did Takuya. "I don't have to summon them. This is the backup for my real card." Snatching all of those cards, he called, "I send Claw Reacher, Woodborg Inpachi, and Prevent Rat from my hand to the graveyard!"

Thunderstruck, Kobayashi stammered, "What the-"

"I summon Montage Dragon!"

"You- you WHAT?"

A storm of light burst up around Takuya, and three beams of red, blue, and green light shot out from his duel disk. The beams spiraled together, merging into a new mass of light that grew until it was larger than anyone else. It reshaped itself, forming wings, great hands and feet, and three long-necked heads. All at once, the light dispersed, revealing the blue and white triple-masked dragon, flexing and roaring as its three sets of eyes focused on the opponent.

_**Montage Dragon**_ - Earth Dragon LV 8 (ATK ?)

The kids were petrified. "No way!" "A monster like that..."

Kobayashi would have stepped back, but his legs and arms were frozen. "Mo- Mo- Montage Dragon? How... how could you have that? That card's only ever used by..."

"Securities?"

Kobayashi only gaped at the other's completion of his sentence. He blinked unsteadily, mind reeling-

"Montage Dragon's attack strength equals 300 times the total levels of all the monsters I used to summon him."

Everyone else looked at Shun, who clenched his eyes closed to remember. "That's level three, level five, and level four."

"...that makes twelve!" "Wait, then how much..." "300 times-" "It's 3600!"

Kobayashi's rising panic reached its peak as the growling dragon gathered its newfound power.

**_Montage Dragon_** - ATK ?... ATK 3600

"Go, Montage Dragon - attack Crab Turtle! Power Collage!" All three heads reared back, gathering light energy in their mouths before firing the three beams at once. The impact blasted through Crab Turtle's shell, and the target detonated with a resounding concussion.

_**Kobayashi**_ - 2900 LP... 1850 LP

Raising his arm to defend himself, Kobayashi couldn't keep the panic out of his face. "No... _no_..."

"Card Trooper, direct attack!"

Kobayashi raised his eyes in time to see the robot raise both arms to him, sight onto the target, and blast both cannons together. The firey shots seared across the field, and as one, they hit him in the chest, the explosion covering up his final yell.

_**Kobayashi**_ - 1850 LP... 0 LP

As he staggered back with the impact, he tripped, and he fell backwards. He hit the ground hard, landing flat onto his back, and the crash jarred his duel disk so that every card fell out of it. His head was swimming so badly that he couldn't think, and not until the dizziness cleared could he push himself to a half-sitting position.

He looked up, seeing Takuya approaching to stand over him. The other kids had gathered around, but he didn't hear them. Once again, he had that vision, as though he wasn't staring at a shaggy-haired kid, but at a uniformed officer. _I lost... I lost..._

The cheering kids surrounded Takuya, but he just kept walking until he stood over Kobayashi. _I did it! I actually beat him!_ About to remind Kobayashi of his end of the deal, Takuya hesitated for a second. Kobayashi's eyes were trembling, and his breathing... _Is he-_

"Takuya!"

Everyone wheeled around to see Martha striding towards the group. She stood before all of them, hands on her hips as she glared at each of them in turn. Then they heard a rushed shuffling noise, and the sound of several kids crying out in surprise made everyone look to see Kobayashi push his way through the ring of kids. He ran, and no one tried to chase him because he was running faster than anyone would have guessed he could move. Several of them yelled parting taunts at him as he went, but he didn't answer.

Even so, he wasn't silent, and only Takuya heard the strain of his voice in his gasping breaths. "Kobayashi..."

His thought cut out as Martha barked at him, "Takuya! What happened?"

"I- well-"

Micchan cut in, "Takuya-kun dueled Kobayashi to get our cards back, and he won!"

"Hah... nice one."

Everyone looked at the new speaker, a young man with spiky red hair and numerous tattoos marking him from prior arrests. They smiled even more to see him, and most of them swarmed around to hug him. "Crow-niichan!" "Kobayashi challenged Takuya-" "Did you see Takuya beat that guy?" "Takuya has a Montage Dragon! You should have seen it..."

Martha immediately looked at Takuya, who was slowly picking up a couple of the fallen cards. Leaving the chattering huddle, she walked over to him. "Takuya, what did you say to Kobayashi?"

"I... I just wanted him to give our cards back. It wasn't supposed to..." He looked up at her. "He was _crying_, I didn't... I'm sorry."

"What did I tell you about using that Montage Dragon?"

"You..." Takuya didn't have to dig for the memory, but the words came out barely louder than a mumble. "You told me not to use it until I understood what Ushio-san told me about... about rushing into things."

"Yes... which is why I'm glad to see that you're learning already."

His eyes snapped back up to her. "Huh?"

"I saw the duel, Takuya. You think I'm not going to notice if half my kids go running off? Of course," and here she glanced at Crow, "that one wanted to wait and see how it turned out. I only agreed when I heard you stand up for Kobayashi." She crouched down and put her hands on his shoulders. "Just like Ushio and I said - it takes more than courage. You also have to understand the risks you're taking. And you're already learning to respect others, which is the first step to understanding them. I'm proud of you." She pointed at him and added, "But breaking up a fight is one thing. You'd better not think of _starting_ any fights like this. Understand?"

Takuya smiled back. "Yes, Martha." Then his face fell. "I still feel kinda bad for him, though." He thought for a few seconds. "Martha, could I give these other cards _back_ to Kobayashi? A lot of them are his."

Martha stood up and answered, "You're lucky Crow came to visit. Yes, that's a good idea." Calling him over, she gave Crow some instructions in a low voice, then announced to the other kids, "Well, let's not keep Saiga and the others waiting! They've got stew and bread ready for us." With everyone's attention, she led them away.

Seeing Shun and Micchan look back, Takuya called, "Go on ahead! Tell Kazumi-chan I'll catch up." Left alone, he and Crow collected the other cards. Then Takuya remembered, "I... I don't know where Kobayashi lives."

Crow led the way and said, "No problem - Martha told me. I gotta say, that was a nice duel!"

"Oh... thanks."

"Interesting deck Kobayashi was using."

"Well, it's a power deck, and a good one - oh! But first, we have to get all the other cards out."

Crow led around a corner and answered, "Okay - I'll help you. We'll each go through half the deck, and you tell me what to look for."

Takuya obliged, "Well, there's Dark Elf, and there's Great White, and..."

After they'd gone another few blocks, Takuya was making one more sweep. "There were seven cards - the last one..."

"Was it Witty Phantom?"

"...Yeah, Taiga's card. How'd you know that?"

Crow gave Takuya his handful of cards in exchange for the half-deck that Takuya held. "Do you notice anything about the cards Kobayashi picked?"

"Huh?" Takuya looked at the seven cards in his hand. Side by side, something did seem a little funny about them... "They're all monsters."

"Well, yeah, but more than that."

"Um, well..." Most were normal monsters, but not Dark Elf. "They've got lots of attack power... but he wanted Micchan's Spirit of the Harp, and that's a defense monster."

Occupied with straightening up the other cards, Crow asked, "Did you remember the Flying Fish in there?"

"Oh, yeah - that's not a power monster." Nothing matched - not the types, not the attributes, not the- "Oh!" Fanning through them again, he realized. "They're all level four!"

"Hah, you got it! So what does that say about Kobayashi's deck.?"

"He... he likes high-level monsters?"

Crow tried not to smile too much. "Well, think about it." He gave back the deck as Takuya stashed the cards in his pocket. "Here we are."

"What?" They'd rounded a corner with some small, identical-looking homes and a few abandoned shops. "This is it?"

"It's his street, anyway. I'm guessing that's his house." Crow pointed to the one house that was both lit and making any sound.

Takuya could hear voices, clanking, and the cry of a baby. "Aren't you coming with me?"

"If you want. I'll be your backup, definitely. But you've got to be the one to give the cards back. Show him no hard feelings."

"Oh... okay, I can do that." Even so, it was a few seconds before Takuya stepped forward, with Crow hanging back just enough. As he neared the steps, the voices got louder.

"-and when I get home, nothing's done!" "Don't you say that, all day I've been-" "This place is such a junk heap that I can't find anything in my own house!"

The front door bounced open, and a figure jumped down the steps, stomping in a straight line towards the door to the empty shop across the street. Only when he was halfway there did he look up. Kobayashi's grated breathing caught in his throat as he and Takuya recognized each other. Then he shouted, "You!"

"Kobayashi! I-"

"What the _hell_ are you doing here?" Stepping closer, he sputtered, "Did you- I swear, if-"

"I came to give you your deck back!"

Slowly, Kobayashi looked at the cards Takuya was clutching. Takuya held the deck out cautiously, and Kobayashi snatched it. He started leafing through it, then slowed to a stop. "Of course, you already... never mind. Get out of here."

But Takuya wasn't moving. _When he saw the card on top of the deck..._ He'd seen Kobayashi pause and look at a card like that before.

"Are you deaf? I said, get lost!"

_The card that got him to keep dueling..._

"You move it, or so help me-"

"Crab Turtle... ritual summons..."

"I'll- what?"

"You wanted high-level monsters because all this time, you've wanted to run a ritual summon."

"You..." Kobayashi just gaped at him. "Shut up!"

"You robbed all those kids just for one card?"

"S- screw you!" Kobayashi turned back to his house, but the voices within had gotten louder again.

"...and when I tell him to do something, I expect it to be-" "Ichiro isn't responsible for-" "Dammit, Maiko - stop defending him! That boy's got to grow up if you like it or not!"

Frozen in mid-step, Kobayashi yelled hoarsely, kicking at a bottle lying in the street. He barely managed a glancing blow, and he gripped his head in both hands.

Takuya flinched and stepped back, lost for words. Instead, he looked around and saw Crow standing by a wall but ready to come forward. Then he looked back at Kobayashi, who was still trying to shut out the fighting. All of a sudden, he didn't feel like he really ought to be angry anymore, so he turned to leave instead.

But he barely made three steps before stopping, shaking his head, and turning back to Kobayashi. "You know... you're a good duelist. I bet you could find another way to make it work."

"What..." Kobayashi had to look back at his deck before he regained the train of thought. "You - do you have any idea how hard this was?"

"If you just tried-"

"Don't _talk_ to me about trying! You..." He stepped forward, raring up again.

As quickly as possible, Takuya blurted, "You played all your monsters one at a time! That's not the way to do it!"

Kobayashi stopped, his face wrinkling up. "Wh- what are you talking about? There's no other way to summon monsters, idiot!"

"No, I mean... you didn't use any cards to keep your monsters together. You need cards that summon other cards, or at least defend them. If you send them in to fight on their own, they'll just get picked off!"

"I- I know that!"

Takuya's eyes didn't soften at these words, but he only said, "Well... if you ever want to trade cards, you can just ask."

"I don't need your help!"

"Maybe not, but your cards aren't getting any other help. If you want to just leave them, that's your business!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!" Turning on their heels, they stomped away, one down the street, the other to the somewhat quieter house.

At the top of the stairs, Kobayashi looked at the deck in his hand, at the Crab Turtle that had been left on top. His eyes relaxed a bit, and he turned around calling, "Maeda."

There was nobody there anymore.

He shook his head, stored his deck safely in his pocket, and walked inside, muttering, "Cards helping other cards."

He paused as he passed the kitchen, with the endless cry of his brother Rion grating in his ears like usual. His mother chopped potatoes and threw them into boiling water. Some of the pieces missed, but she just moved to the wailing baby in the high chair. Taking a bottle out of another bowl of water nearby, she fed little Rion, but as she did so, Ichiro saw the bruise on her cheek and flinched.

She noticed. "I wish you didn't have to hear that, Ichiro."

"Mom-"

"Your father has no right to say those things. If only he'd-" At that moment, one of the covered pots on the stove boiled over, foam and steam hissing throughout the kitchen. She quickly returned Rion to his chair, dropping the bottle on the counter in her rush to the stove. He immediately began wailing again, and Ichiro couldn't hear or think of anything else. She frantically opened the pot and stirred the contents, somewhat calming the water. "It's all right, Rion, Mommy's still here, don't-"

The crying had stopped. Looking back, she saw Ichiro holding the bottle for his brother and murmuring, "Quit crying, Rion. Just calm down... there you go."

"Ichiro, put that down. Don't feel like you have to-"

"Mom, I've got it! Just... just let me do this, okay?"

Ichiro didn't talk much at dinner that night. Fortunately, Rion was quiet too, and it was a great relief that his father didn't complain that the potatoes or greens weren't boiled properly, so he resorted to grumbling about a lack of decent parts at the garage. His younger sisters ate quickly and ran back to their room, Seiko to read her book and Kimiko to draw on the wall, most likely. Ichiro eventually finished, taking his plate to the sink and slipping upstairs before either parent could comment.

He paused at the door to his room, clicking on the light and surveying the clutter. Sighing, he shut himself in and began the search. He started with the lowermost drawers, then moving on to dig through the clothes on his floor and the debris in his closet. He even leafed through the pages of both his old storybooks and lifted up his mattress. He didn't bother looking at the cards he found, merely tossing them onto his desk one by one.

Only after he'd checked everywhere twice did he turn to the pitiful pile. He counted them, grimaced, and went through his deck again. After the third count, he piled all his cards back together, picking up and replacing the last one with some reluctance.

Turning out the light, he flopped into bed, thumping his pillow into a slightly less lumpy shape. _Now what am I going to do?_ Wrenching his eyes away, he stared at the wall instead of his deck. No matter how many times he counted, there were still exactly forty cards.

\\\

"Direct attack."

The muscular man screamed as the bolts of electrical current ran through his body, and his D-Wheel quaked violently before its engine opened up, releasing clouds of smoke into his face. Just when he was about to be thrown from the vehicle, his opponent raised one hand towards it. Immediately, the D-Wheel stopped, and the man's unconscious body slumped forward in the seat.

The other one pulled up alongside, going over and picking up his victim's deck. "Log: A thoroughly unimaginative deck, yet quite persistent. Favors a greater amount of summoning over higher-class monsters. Ineffective at breaking defenses above Class II, but good at maintaining field presence. Optimal sample: selected." The dark figure removed a few cards from the man's D-Wheel, then replaced the rest.

The other D-Wheel, of such a conservative design compared to its victim, restarted and raced once more down the Daedalus duel lane. But just before it was out of sight, the owner looked back with glowing eyes and raised a hand again. _Must remember to maintain appearances._ The prone D-Wheel revved to life and accelerated back to full speed. The crash generated an explosion that could just be seen from the mainland. Maybe this man would be lucky enough that someone saw the wreck.

Maybe.

* * *

_See previous notations, leave a comment, and go outside and enjoy the sunlight!_


	3. Scrap Searcher

"Hey, watch the cars!"

"You worry about catching up!"

Takuya panted as he struggled to skate faster, but he couldn't get any closer to the girl in the ragged jeans skating several yards ahead of him. Effortlessly, she glided along, never breaking rhythm, her long black hair flying out behind her. _You want me to catch up? All right then..._ Nearing a corner in the street, she gracefully swept into the curve with only a minor check in her speed. He, however, jumped the curb and cut across the sidewalk. Sweeping around the bend-

"Hey!"

"Yah!" He swerved around the man walking his dog, landing back on the road. _Good thing he wasn't using a leash!_

"Oh, so that's how you want to play it?" She was neck and neck with him, and even though she was smiling, he could see the fierce glint in her eyes.

They were about the same age, but unlike her, he didn't have any breath for bragging. Instead, he just pushed to stay ahead, thinking, _I'm winning this time, Kazumi-chan!_

\\\

"You awake, boy?"

Snapping out of it, Ichiro dug the requested tool from the box and passed it to the outstretched hand. It vanished into the engine, leaving him to watch as his father renewed his struggle with the broken connections of the D-Wheel in front of him. Unable to see much of it, Ichiro's attention returned to the other vehicle, over in the corner. This one was just a regular motorcycle, and Ichiro knew that it wasn't for sale. Not because it was no good - it was all but finished - but because this was what his father chose to work on when he got truly sick of working for other people.

But in the meantime, there was still the pile of parts to be replaced. Ichiro picked up one of the pieces. "Huh... so this is the Momentum converter?"

His father grunted, remaining bent over the engine. "No, that's what it's supposed to be. If they made anything that lasted longer than a year-" His grip slipped, and he fumbled the piece he had been trying to maneuver into place. It dropped into the engine, and he swore in frustration.

"Here, I got it." Ichiro had inherited his father's size and strong arms, but fortunately, he was still small enough to reach through the engine for the fallen part.

As he handed it back, his father went back to work and grumbled, "This is going to take all day. Still don't have half the replacements either."

"Didn't you order-"

"He didn't have them. Just called this morning and told me. Might as well be dealing with Kuzuyama, for all the good these guys do me."

"Kuzuyama..." Ichiro had heard that name around the dinner table pretty often, usually with unpleasant expressions to go with it. "You aren't working with him anymore?"

His father didn't even bother looking up. "That senile old man? Charges twice the going rate, but most of the time, whatever he sells falls apart."

_Well, he's not best friends with you, either._ But Ichiro decided instead to say, "We could ask anyway."

"I'm not working with him again."

"Well, who else is there?" His father stood up abruptly and glared back, but Ichiro hadn't been speaking rhetorically.

"Fine, but you can be the one to deal with him." Scribbling a list, he added, "These are all things I know he's got, so don't let him bullshit you that he's all out. Tell him I'll pay him by the end of the week _if_ they work, and no more than our usual rate." As an afterthought, he wrote those prices in the margin.

Taking the page and stuffing it into his pocket, Ichiro left the garage, blinking in the morning light. _Is every day like this for him?_

As he passed by his house, his mother called out, and when he said where he was going, she said, "But didn't your father tell you? Kuzuyama's not living in his house anymore."

"Huh?"

"He's staying at Martha's now. About time, if you ask me - it's not safe, living with all those junk piles."

But Ichiro was barely listening. _No way - I have to go to _Martha's_ house?_

\\\

"I set one monster and end my turn."

Some of the kids watching cheered that Shun could hold on. The rest of them cheered for Taiga to finish him off. They could all see who had the upper hand - Shun's field amounted to one face-down card, one face-up spell, and nothing in his hand now that he had set his monster.

On the other side, the boy with the brown ponytail and purple bandanna on his head had plenty of cards in his hand, plus he had his trusty Witty Phantom standing at ease, a one-eyed devil made of smoke, and a field spell casting shadows all around them.

_**Witty Phantom**_ - Dark Fiend LV 4 (ATK 1400... ATK 1600)

_**Doomsday Token**_ - Dark Fiend LV 1 (DEF 0... DEF 200)

"All right - draw!" His face lit up. "Yes! You're going down."

Shun shot back, "We'll see. Bring it on."

"I release my token to summon King of Yamimakai!" The lump of shadow was sucked into a sacrificial light, which opened as the new monster leapt from the summon. The spike-shouldered demon stood tall, swinging clawed arms and gnashing its teeth in an otherwise-featureless face. "And it gets even stronger from my Yami field spell!"

_**King of Yamimakai**_ - Dark Fiend LV 5 (ATK 2000... ATK 2200)

"Now my King of Yamimakai attacks!" The demon leapt, punching its clawed hand straight through the hidden card. A glimpse of the three-eyed imp could be seen before it burst into holographic shards.

"That was my Sangan, which means-"

"Yeah, yeah - you get a monster."

Shun fanned through his deck, lifting a few cards partway from the stack and looking back and forth between them.

"Any day now!"

His mind made up, Shun met Taiga eye to eye and held out his card. "Versago the Destroyer!"

"Finally. Witty Phantom, attack him directly!" The aristocratic devil ran straight at the opponent, drawing back a gloved hand and punching him.

_**Shun**_ - 2400 LP... 800 LP

"800 life points to 2200 - no problem. I end my turn."

"All right." As he prepared to draw, Shun's mind was whirling. _I have one chance to turn this around... just one card!_ "Draw!"

\\\

As Ichiro came into view of the house, he stopped, then shook his head and pushed himself to keep walking. Most of the kids weren't in the front yard anyway - they were around the corner watching a duel. On the other hand, Martha came out the front door as he walked up.

"Ah, Ichiro, is it? Good morning, child."

"Hi, Martha. Is Mr. Kuzuyama here?"

Smiling, she said, "An errand from your father, is it? Yes, he's here. Wait right there, I'll call him out."

Left with nothing else to do, Ichiro looked around and noticed there was someone else in the yard he hadn't noticed - a girl a few years younger than him, mousy hair just long enough to hang around her ears and drift in front of her glasses. She was sitting by herself, apparently sketching something, but it must been from out of her head because she wasn't looking at anything else.

_Oh no... is that-?_ He tried to ignore her, but he kept looking back. She still wasn't looking at him. _Maybe if she doesn't notice..._ Clutching his forehead in confusion, he muttered, "Grrr..." His eyes snapped open, and he looked around - first at the still-quiet front door, then to see if the crowd out back was breaking up.

No one was around to notice, but that didn't make it any easier for him. Even so, he clenched one fist, took a breath and exhaled sharply, then plodded his way over to the sitting girl.

\\\

Takuya veered side to side, preventing Kazumi from skating around him. As they approached the last corner, she jumped up onto the sidewalk, but he was already there, and they had to time their strides to avoid the cracks in the concrete and keep from knocking each other over.

As they leapt back to the road, Kazumi called, "Looks like you've been practicing for once!"

Takuya just blinked the sweat out of his eyes, focusing on the driveway that served as the traditional finish line. _Almost there..._

Too late, he saw the blur in the corner of his eyes as Kazumi made one more bid to dodge around him. "Oh, no you don't- whoa!"

His foot snagged in mid-skate, and as he lurched forward, he realized how quickly one could trip over a stray rock in the path if you hadn't been noticing the road ahead. "Aah - whuh?"

He had been caught by the back of the shirt, and he was yanked back to standing upright. The pull set him spinning like a clumsy ballet dancer, and with some instinctive whirling of his arms, he stabilized his spin and stayed upright.

But his speed had dropped drastically, and he only looked up in time to see his friend soar past the finish, then turn ninety degrees and crunch to a stop. Pumping a fist in the air, she yelled, "Chiang Kazumi - skating champion!" Then she looked back and saw that Takuya had finally fallen over in the attempt to build up one last burst of speed. Grinning, she smoothly skated back to him.

"Well... I almost made it."

"Close doesn't count, Takuya-kun. Oh, and you dropped something."

Looking around, he saw that his deck box had fallen off sometime during his near-crash. It was only a few feet away, so he crawled over to pick it up, along with a few of the cards that had fallen out.

Going over to help, Kazumi's breath caught, and she swooped down to scoop up one card before Takuya could reach it. She read it closely, glaring at every word on it.

"Wait - Kazumi-chan, that's..." His voice trailed off as she turned to stare at him.

"You said you weren't serious about this."

"Well, I... I don't really know _yet_... I just thought, maybe..."

Eventually, she turned her glare back at the card. For an instant, Takuya thought she was going to rip it in half - then, she held it out to him by the very tips of two fingers. As soon as he took it back, she went to the bins by the side of the road, picked up the satchel she had stashed there, and skated away.

"S- See you tomorrow, Kazumi-chan."

"See you, Takuya."

He got to his feet, putting Montage Dragon back into his deck box as he thought, _Maybe she wasn't angry after all..._ Skating more easily the rest of the way to Martha's, he heard the duel before he saw it. But then, his eyes fell on the last person he expected to see there. _Kobayashi! Wait... is he-?_

\\\

She only noticed when the sunlight was blocked from her notebook. When she looked up, her eyes widened. She wasn't trembling; if anything, she froze up even more than before.

Ichiro looked down at her, then sighed and dug into his pocket, picking out the card he'd left on the top of his deck. Looking just once to the card, then back to the girl, he closed his eyes, and held it out. "Here."

She blinked once, then looked at it, hands not moving from her book.

He moved his hand closer, adding, "Yours."

Holding her hand close to her at first, she tentatively reached out and accepted the card. When she looked at it, her pale eyes widened ever so slightly, and she held it close to her. Glancing up at him a couple times before again staring at the book on her knees, she murmured, "Thank you..."

"Ichiro!"

He turned around at the voice, quickly walking back to the door from which Martha had called. Turning to the old man now with her, she asked, "You've met Hiroki's son, haven't you?"

Kuzuyama Tetsuzo stooped a bit to look at Ichiro, but not smiling as he answered, "Well, now I have! So, what's on your mind?"

Taking a stiff breath, Ichiro said, "My dad needs some parts for a D-Wheel repair."

"Does he now? Hmmph... well, I might be able to help him. What's he looking for?"

"I have a list." Ichiro took out the page, but he didn't hand it over. "I'll come with you. If you've got good copies of these parts, we can figure it out from there."

The old man sniffed at this comment, but Martha spoke up. "_Good_ parts? Tetsuzo, what kind of parts have you been selling to this boy's father?"

Kuzuyama muttered, "That man wouldn't know a working D-Wheel if it ran him over..."

"Hey!"

Ichiro's outburst was cut off by a glance from Martha, and she went on to tell Kuzuyama, "You've put all that selfish act behind you. Now's the time to prove it."

He sighed, then smiled a little bit as he looked at Ichiro. "So you're helping your old man fix D-Wheels... All right, maybe we can make a deal. But if I know your father, he'll have a long list. You plan on carrying all of that?"

Ichiro took a look at the list. He recognized enough of them to tell that it would be awkward load to handle. "Well... I'll make a couple of trips."

Kuzuyama looked down at the list, then up at Martha. "Actually, I reckon we have a wagon around here that could hold all of that."

Ichiro felt like a dork pulling the squeaky red wagon away from the house, led by this old guy. _I'll be glad when I've got this all over with..._

\\\

Shun looked closely at the new card in his hand. "...Got it. This duel is over!"

"You giving up?"

"No way. It's the second standby phase since I activated Different Dimension Capsule, so the card I removed goes to my hand!" His face-up spell glowed and disappeared, and Shun swung the new card to his duel disk right away. "Activate field spell, Fusion Gate! That means your Yami field spell gets destroyed!"

The shadows of the previous field all dispersed at once, and in their place, dark spiraling clouds appeared above them. "Aw, no..."

_**Witty Phantom**_ - ATK 1600... ATK 1400

_**King of Yamimakai**_ - ATK 2200... ATK 2000

"And one more spell - Dark Factory of Mass Production! I get any two normal monsters from my graveyard back to my hand." Fanning these cards out, this decision went much more quickly. "Ancient Brain and Roboyarou!"

Taiga grimaced, and the other kids became excited as they recognized the next step.

"With Fusion Gate, I remove from play Ancient Brain and Versago the Destroyer from my hand to fuse them together! I'll use Versago's effect to substitute it for Tainted Wisdom." The fallen angel with the prominent brain appeared in the sky alongside the legless fiend wrapped in woven strips of fabric. The two monsters became distorted, vanishing into the cloud vortex, which then released a fresh burst of light. From this light appeared a dark soldier whose sword, shield, horned helmet, and leering breastplate all followed the motif of a skull. "Fusion summon - Skull Knight!"

_**Skull Knight**_ - Dark Spellcaster LV 7 (ATK 2650)

Taiga stepped back a bit, then muttered, "One monster. I can handle it."

Shun held out a hand and called, "Activate trap, Return from the Different Dimension! By paying half my life points, I summon all my removed from play monsters!"

_**Shun**_ - 800 LP... 400 LP

The very space behind Shun spiraled and shone, allowing Ancient Brain and Versago the Destroyer to leap from the portal to the field.

_**Ancient Brain**_ - Dark Fiend LV 3 (ATK 1000)

_**Versago the Destroyer**_ - Dark Fiend LV 3 (ATK 1100)

"Now I activate Fusion Gate again, removing Versago from the field and Roboyarou from my hand!" The demon flew up to the warped clouds again, joined by a slim man encased head to toe in robotic armor. They vanished into the vortex, and the resulting beam of light delivered a larger robotic man with a sharp visor and a double-ended lance. "Fusion summon - Super Roboyarou!"

_**Super Roboyarou**_ - Earth Machine LV 6 (ATK 1200)

"Here we go... Skull Knight, attack King of Yamimakai!" For a creature so large, the knight moved swiftly as it charged in, skewering the target with one lunge of his sword.

_**Taiga**_ - 2200 LP... 1550 LP

"Now, Super Roboyarou attacks, and its ability gives it 1000 attack points during battles with other monsters!" Scanning the field, the robot locked on to Witty Phantom.

_**Super Roboyarou**_ - ATK 1200... ATK 2200

It sprang forward, swinging its weapon so quickly that it sliced through the target twice before Witty Phantom had time to be destroyed.

_**Taiga**_ - 1550 LP... 750 LP

"Ancient Brain attacks you directly!"

Taiga looked all around, but he had nothing on the field to stop the monster gathering the dark bolt of magic to fire straight at him. "Aw, nuts."

_**Taiga**_ - 750 LP... 0 LP

Shun gave one brief victory sign to the mostly-cheering kids before meeting Taiga in the middle of the field for a handshake. As he passed his duel disk to the next kid in line and went to rejoin Micchan on the sidelines, he caught sight of someone moving quickly in the distance. _Takuya?_

\\\

"Did he say anything?"

"No... not really."

"Hmm... well, can I see the card he gave you?"

"I guess so." She didn't hand it to him, but she held the card out for him to look at.

"Huh - a trap card?" Reading more closely, his eyes opened wider. "No way... Kobayashi gave you _that_?"

"What about Kobayashi?" "Was he here?"

Takuya looked up as Shun and Micchan came over. "Yeah, and he gave Ishi this card."

Both were stunned, and Micchan answered first. "You're kidding! Did he hurt you at all?"

Startled, Ishi shook her head. "No - he didn't do anything."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!"

"Okay, okay... So he just gave you a card, like a present?"

"Not like that. It- it's my card."

"Wait," asked Shun. "Kobayashi had one of your cards all this time?"

Faced with the surprised looks of his friends, Takuya raised his hands and stammered, "I didn't know about that card, I swear." Then he saw Ishi drop further into silence, and he added, "But if I had known, I'd have gotten that back to you, promise."

"It's okay... it's back now."

Micchan smiled and sat down next to her. "Cool. So can we see it?" Cautiously, she handed it over, and he read, "Metal Reflect Slime... wait, this- this is a really rare card!"

Shun knelt down quickly to read over Micchan's shoulder. "And check it out... summon this card as a monster... 3000 defense! Level _ten_? If Kobayashi had held on to a card like that..."

The discussion was drawing an audience, but Micchan had already handed the card back to Ishi. "Who's got a level-ten monster?" "Kobayashi has a new card? Is he back?"

Takuya brushed away the rest of his disbelief and spoke up. "Kobayashi was talking to Ishi-"

"He _what_?" "Was there a fight?"

"No, no-" but he was overridden when Atsumi pushed through the crowd. Takuya had glimpsed her and Saiga exiting the house, but at the mention of a fight, her bright blue eyes had locked on Ishi, and she had come running. "Ishi! What happened? What's this about this Kobayashi guy fighting you?"

"No, he- he didn't do anything!"

With one sweeping examination, Atusmi answered, "Oh." Then she shrugged and turned back to Takuya. "So what _did_ happen?"

"I just saw him walk up to her. He barely said a word to her - he just gave her a card and left."

"A card?" She walked over and got the card from Ishi. "What... Since when have you had this?"

"I just... a while ago."

"And that guy took this from you and you never _said_ anything? How long has he had this?"

"I- I don't..."

Shun stepped in. "It's been more than a week since Takuya dueled him."

Saiga, who was listening in, smiled through his stubble at these words. "That's right... but there's something about that. Even after all that time, Kobayashi still brought the card back. What does that say to you?"

He was looking at Takuya, but it was Micchan that spoke up first. "Maybe... maybe Kobayashi changed his mind. He must have _decided_ to give it back."

Takuya finished it off. "Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all."

\\\

It was midafternoon when Ichiro and Tetsuzo finally walked back up Martha's street. Ichiro looked for another duel, but no such luck. In fact, a large group of kids was sitting in a circle - well, two circles, one of boys and one of girls - near Saiga in the middle of the front yard.

Saiga walked over as he saw them approach. "So how'd it go?"

"Hah. Believe or not, we've got a deal."

"Really? No tricks, Tetsuzo?"

"What kind of business do you think I run, sonny? I don't go selling any old junk."

"Heh... No, of course not."

"Right!" He chuckled and added, "Plus, this boy's got a spark for mechanics. I'd never mess that up, and I'm glad to be rid of Hiroki's bellyaching."

With his last bit of reserve, Ichiro ignored the last comment as he passed the again-empty wagon back to Saiga, muttering thanks and turning to go. He noticed, however, that the discussion in the circle had gotten louder. With a quick survey, he noticed that Ishi wasn't there anymore.

Everyone in the group was focused on a spiky-haired boy in an orange jacket named Ginga, who was pleading with Micchan. "But it _has_ to be United Resistance! I really need that one!"

"I just said, I've never _heard_ of it."

"Come on - maybe you've seen it. _Some_one has to have one." He looked all around the group. "Come on... anyone?"

"I have one."

The discussion stopped dead as everyone looked quickly up at Ichiro. This time, no one shuddered to see him, though a few whispered to each other and snickered. Ginga finally answered, "Really?"

Taiga quickly stage-whispered, "What? No way! With this guy, he's probably-"

"Hey!" Ichiro's hand swung back, but he was only getting his deck. He quickly filed thorough it and held up a monster. "You got something to say about that?"

Ginga peered closely at the card's name. "...United Resistance - you really do have it!"

"What?" "No way." But everyone who could see the monster could read it easily.

Ginga quickly overrode the resulting mutters. "Cool! So... what'll you trade for it?"

Ichiro didn't answer right away, even though everyone was on edge, including himself. _The chances he'd have one of those... Nah, I better try for something else._ "Do you have any cards that can get other cards out of the deck?"

The response was a blank look. "Um... maybe. What kind of card?"

"I don't know - _any_ card!"

"Okay, okay..." Ginga searched through his cards. "Well, there's this one." He held up the monster card, Magical Merchant.

Taiga gasped, "Hey, not that one - you only just got it!"

"Yeah, but... well, I bet it's no good anyway."

"It's good for _him_, I bet." Taiga glared up at Ichiro, and he added, "What do you want that card for anyway?"

"Hey, I don't have to tell you!"

"Huh - comes here for a trade and won't even tell anybody why..."

"It's not that he doesn't _want_ to." Takuya struggled to find the right words to say next. "I mean, nobody'd say that without a reason. It's... it's just that he _can't_ say. It's a secret, you know?"

The mention of a secret caught everyone's attention, even if they weren't all excited to hear it. Taiga sniffed, "Bet it's no good."

Micchan caught on. "Well, you're one to talk! Talking about your _secret_ move to beat Shun-"

"Hey, that one was a good plan! And it would have worked if only-"

Takuya stepped back in, "Well, Kobayashi's got one, too. You can't blame him for that. Huh - even Ginga-kun hasn't said why wants this card so much."

With so many eyes on him, Ginga fidgeted a bit. "Well..." Then he looked back up, smirked and declared, "I'll tell you my move _if_ Kobayashi tells us his."

One by one, they dared to look at him. Ichiro was dumbfounded. _Why should I tell them? It's not like they'll give a crap about it..._ Then he realized that some of them really did look curious, which meant there were that many fewer angry ones. "Okay, fine."

"Cool!" Ginga went through his cards right away and picked out one of them. "Here!"

Shun read out, "Huge Revolution... sends all cards on the opponent's field and in their hand to the graveyard! But you need three monsters to use it." He smiled. "Let me guess-"

Ginga threw down People Running About proudly, and he topped off the stack with Oppressed People. "Just got the second one yesterday."

Taiga gave his buddy a shove on the arm. "You really think you can get that to work!"

"It'll work! Wait and see!" Then he faced back up. "All right - now it's your turn."

Ichiro sighed and sat down. "If you really want to know, I..." He glanced at Takuya, who nodded encouragingly. "I'm building a ritual deck!" He tensed up, ready to cut down any ridicule.

"A what?"

He blinked, then answered, "You know, ritual monsters." Still nothing. "Come on, you were _there_ last week, weren't you?

"Show them," Shun prompted.

He glared at this address, then shook his head and fished out the card. "_These_ monsters."

"Whoa..." Several kids crowded closer to get a better look at Crab Turtle. "Isn't that the card Masami was talking about yesterday?" "Yeah, the one Takuya beat!"

Ichiro flinched, but when a younger girl named Hikari commented on its blue color, Ginga looked puzzled and started sifting through his own cards. "Something like this?"

Ichiro gaped, "What- you... You have one?"

A couple boys joked at how Hungry Burger was a crazy name for a card, but Ginga just said, "Yeah. Never was able to use it, though. Why, do you want it?"

"Do I..." He just blinked. _I've been looking for months, and I never even found _one_ other ritual monster!_ "Well, yeah." Seeing some kids look quickly back to the one card in his hand, he quickly added, "I could trade you another card for that."

"Oh... well, okay! What else do you have?"

He searched through his cards carefully, but on the second pass through, a problem dawned on him. _If he's trying to use that trap, there's no way can keep those three monsters alive. But I don't have any defense in my deck... _It was as if he was back on that street with Takuya yelling at him. He shook his head and went through one more time. _Wait, maybe... but I can't give that up!_ Then he looked up at the kids all staring expectantly at him. He glanced down to the card and back to them before deciding, _Well... just this once._ He held up his Double Summon spell card. "How about this one?"

"I don't know... is it any good?"

"Sure, it is." Ichiro and Shun had answered at the same time, and Takuya elbowed Shun before Ichiro went on. "You need your three monsters on the field. But you can't leave them all there or... or they'll just get picked off. So you save them in your hand and use this card once you're really ready. Then you hit your opponent with the whole combo at once."

Those who cared about tactics turned this over in their heads. Ginga answered, "Huh... well, okay."

"Really?"

"Sure - you got a deal!" He held out his two monsters, and Ichiro blinked a few times before slowly handing over his. Taiga smirked and sarcastically congratulated Ginga on the trade, while Takuya looked at the faintest trace of a smile appearing on Ichiro's face.

For an instant, Ichiro thought, _I could just leave now._ But just then, Shun commented, "Nice one, Kobayashi - now you can play two ritual monsters!"

His face fell as he thought about that, and he muttered. "Not yet, I can't."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Well... every ritual monster needs a different ritual spell to summon it. I don't have the one for Hungry Burger." He read the card in his hand. "It's called Hamburger Recipe, if anyone has it."

He didn't expect a 'yes', and he didn't get one. "Oh... sorry, never seen that one. Do you know what it looks like?"

This stopped him up. _Actually, I've never seen it either!_ "Well - it's got the ritual symbol on it."

"The what?"

"You know - different types of spells have symbols on them. Turtle Oath has this little campfire symbol on it." He brought out the card to demonstrate.

This time, it was Micchan that blinked and picked up his cards. "Is this it?"

It was a spell, but the picture definitely didn't feature any kind of cooking. Even so, "Y- yeah, that's a ritual spell!" He looked all around. "How do you guys _do_ this?"

"What, find cards? It's easy - you just have to look for 'em!"

"But... it took me forever to find these!"

"Well, it's not easy, but you find a good place, and you get something sooner or later!" Leaving the other speechless, Micchan looked at his card. "It's too bad, though. Contract with the Abyss... that's not what you wanted."

Shun looked over his shoulder, "That's weird. I thought you said every ritual monster had a spell to go with it, but this it doesn't say what monster it summons. It just says it summons a dark ritual monster."

Ichiro picked up his cards, caught his breath, then cautiously said, "_Any_ dark ritual monster?"

"I guess so."

Ichiro pointed at the symbol for the dark element on his new card. "Then Hungry Burger does have a ritual spell after all." He looked at Micchan, thought for a few seconds, and sifted back through his cards. "Would you trade for this one?"

Taiga scoffed at it. "Hoshiningen? That's a weak monster."

Micchan countered, "Yeah, but its effect gives extra attack points to light monsters, and he _is_ a light monster." He glanced back at the card before adding, "_And_ he takes attack points away from dark monsters!" This got Taiga's attention, but Micchan ignored the other's confused efforts to check if that was really true. "Sure, I'll trade for that!" They swapped, and he smiled. "Thanks!"

"Oh, um... sure."

Hikari wondered, "How did he know you're collecting light monsters?"

Ichiro fidgeted at her gaze, "Well, I dueled- him... before..." All the past couple months ran through his head, and his jaw clenched a couple times before he spoke. "Look, I- I really was a jerk, okay? I'm... sorry."

After several seconds of silence, he looked back up, but no one was staring back at him. They just looked from one to another, until Takuya spoke up, "Well, all right, then."

"You- you're just-"

"You're not going to be doing that again, are you?"

"Well, no-"

"Then it's okay." He promptly turned to Shun. "Hey, you got any ideas on how to get extra monsters out of the deck?"

Shun grinned. "Maybe." As he got out his cards, he asked, "Have you ever seen a deck for fusion monsters before?"

\\\

Martha looked up from her work of bandaging Chiharu's knee - even from a block away, she could recognize Hiroki Kobayashi's stride. With a tender squeeze, the tricyclist was back on her way, and Martha stood up to receive her unexpected guest. "Good evening, Mr. Kobayashi."

"Hmph, suppose it is. Have you seen that son of mine anywhere?"

"Of course - he hasn't been far." She pointed to the group of kids, who were now giggling at Ichiro struggling to explain that no, ritual monsters were _not_ like synchro monsters.

"Has that boy been here all day?"

"Oh - didn't he and Tetsuzo get those parts to you?"

He grunted. "Yeah, they came in all right. Though why he couldn't have just let that guy tow his own wagon back-"

"And how's the repair job coming?"

Another pause, another grunt. "Coming along all right so far. Be glad when it's over."

"Well, that's good to hear. And Tetsuzo told me your son was very helpful gathering everything together."

"Huh... that's news to me. Boy's hardly ever around, and all of a sudden, he asks to come into the garage."

"Well, it's good that he's getting the practice." She turned towards the cluster of kids. "He might not say much, but he's very observant. All this afternoon, he's been swapping those cards with my kids, and even when they don't say it, he picks up on things. Finds a card that fits right in with what they want." She laughed, "Of course, they have to help him figure out what cards he wants, too. But he doesn't seem to mind, not anymore."

The other one didn't move or look away from his son. He could hear the laughter from across the yard, and he muttered, "Huh... can't remember the last time I saw that boy smile."

\\\

After the fifth try, Ichiro finally found a Petit Dragon and handed it to Hikari's friend, Kokoro. While she struggled to decide if _this_ monster was cute enough, he thought about the cards that he would never have given a second thought to this time yesterday. _I must have been through these so many times, I'll have them memorized for life!_

She made up her mind. "This is a good one! Thank you, Kobayashi-kun!"

This address caught a few kids' attention, and Ichiro stared. But her smile showed that she wasn't giving it a second thought, so he smiled back as best he could and said, "...You're welcome."

Micchan spoke up, "Hey, wait a minute - Takuya-kun hasn't had a trade!" Conversation sloped off as the two of them looked at each other. Looking straight at Ichiro, Micchan added, "So, what's a good card for a Security's deck?"

"You know, maybe I can find something." In fact, he already had the card stashed right at the back of the pile. _It's not much, but..._ "How about this one?"

Takuya smiled even more. "A/D Changer..."

Ginga muttered, "Huh, I've got one of those myself, never did much. How's that supposed to help you?"

Takuya didn't answer. "Sounds good, and I think I've got a good card for you, too."

He held it out, and Ichiro blinked unsteadily. "Sonic Bird..." He read it twice to be sure, then he noticed, "A level four monster." He and Takuya both laughed a bit at that.

Everyone else was confused. "Doesn't seem like a good trade, Takuya. Level four for level one?"

"It's okay. It's a good place for both of our cards. So, deal?"

"Deal." They traded, but Ichiro didn't admire his new card right away. "Thanks, Maeda."

"You're welcome, Kobayashi-kun."

The sound of a throat clearing made Ichiro turn around. "Ah - dad!" He climbed to his feet, stammering, "I'm- I was gonna come right back-"

"Never mind that. Your mother's got dinner ready by now, so let's get moving."

Ichiro scooped up his cards, but as he turned to go, Micchan tugged him back a bit. "You know, this-" He looked around and whispered, "this Sunday, a bunch of us are going down to the dump. Maybe we'll find some cards, too - you want to come?"

"Oh, uh..." He hadn't expected that, especially on top of the rest of the day. All he wanted was to go home. Then he looked again at Micchan, who was still looking at him like he expected him to jump up and down. "...Sure, why not?"

"Cool - meet us here, we usually go right after lunch. But don't tell Martha, okay?"

He smiled and shook his head just a bit as he turned to catch up to his father. "Yeah, all right."

\\\

Ichiro took his dinner plate to the sink, now back to silence. The day had completely spun him around, but he eventually the thought came back to nag at him. _You only have thirty-nine cards, it isn't enough..._ He shut that line of thought off immediately. Just as he was about to head upstairs for the night, his father called him back.

"Hey - I, uh... I found this in with the junk from this morning. Reckon you might be able to use it?"

Confused, Ichiro watched as his father took from his pocket- _it couldn't be!_ But it really was, it was a card, and his smile came back as gradually as his voice, "I- yeah, I can... th- thank you."

Now it was his father's turn to be confused. "You haven't even looked at it."

Ichiro took the card and turned it over. "What? But this... how did you know..."

"Huh, didn't know from nothing. Just figured you collect them, so-" He was cut off as Ichiro grabbed him around the midsection in a great hug.

"Th- thanks, dad."

Unsure, he eventually patted Ichiro on the back. "...Sure thing, son. Now- now go on. Get to bed."

As the footsteps leapt up the stairs, he turned back to see his wife smiling. "You're a bad liar, you know that?"

"Hmph - don't know what you're talking about."

"You 'found it'?"

"Let it go, Maiko."

She responded by walking over and kissing him. Then she returned to the soapy-water sink and added, "Of course, it would really be something if you decided to 'find' the dishtowel."

He didn't answer. But when she rinsed off the pan and passed it to him, he already had the towel in hand.

* * *

_Share and enjoy. (A comment would be nice, too.) God bless you!_


	4. The Forceful Sentry

Atsumi snatched a piece of fruit from the refrigerator, then nearly ran into her mother as she turned towards the door. "Whoa!"

Her mother held out an arm as Atsumi tried to duck past. "And where are you going all of a sudden?"

"Out."

"Out where?"

"Just out. With some friends," she added when prompted by her mother's expression.

"Any idea when you'll be back?"

"Just a couple hours."

She moved towards the door again, only to meet with, "Have you at least had lunch yet?"

"I'll be fine, Mom."

"Oh, no - get back here. Sit down and have something decent."

"Mom, I have to-"

"_Atsumi_."

She staved off the glare for a few seconds, then conceded to lean against the counter as she bit into her snack.

Her mother's lecture was cut off by a knock at the door. "Good morning, Mrs. Nagasawa!"

"Hello, Hikari. Hello, Kokoro."

"Is Ishi-chan still here?"

"Of course, come in." She led them back to the kitchen, where Ishi was working at a bowl of noodles, staring pointedly at it as Atsumi finished off her own lunch. "Would you like something to eat?"

"Oh no, thank you - we're heading out soon."

"Well, it's a lovely day for it..." (Atsumi didn't even bother rolling her eyes) "...but I would feel better if you weren't on your own."

Hikari looked at Kokoro before answering, "We won't be."

"Even so... Atusmi, why don't you go with them?"

Ishi froze mid-chew, but Atsumi was already answering, "What? No, I can't, I-"

"_Atsumi!_"

Ishi turned to her friends and said, "Hey, did you see the sketch I did yesterday?" They gathered around as she brought out the picture of a crow. She didn't really listen to their praises - _I know I got the feathers all wrong_ - but she kept turning pages anyway, and by the time they reached the alley cat, Atsumi low-voice protests had finally been overruled.

Turning and striding towards the door, Atsumi stopped and looked back. Ishi quickly took her dishes to the sink, scooped up her backpack, and followed her friends out the door. They called goodbye back to Mrs. Nagasawa, but Atsumi only conceded to give one glare before following and slamming the door behind her.

It really was a bright day, with a comfortable breeze, and Kokoro skipped a bit as she led Hikari and Ishi down the street. They chatted about any rumor or strange thing that they'd noticed the past couple of days, navigating the blocks without needing to look. Atsumi didn't really need to look, either; they were going to the dump, just like they did every couple of weeks. But if she'd ever said that to her mom, she probably would've had to go with them _every_ time.

Hikari had heard that Micchan had seen a stray dog around there when he was looking for cards the last time, to which Kokoro remembered, "Oh yeah, Ishi-chan - have you found any new cards?"

"Oh, um... yeah, a couple." She fished her deck out from her bag, then checked the cards with some care. "Oh! no, not those... Here, here's a couple." She found both her new monsters, passing one to each of them.

Hikari smiled. "Haniwa? You should see this one, Kokoro." They swapped the cards so they-

"Aah!" Kokoro had dropped the card instead of passing it, and just then, the wind picked up. The card flew down the street, leaving the girls to chase after it.

"Gotcha!" The voice had come from one of the teenaged guys leaning against the building nearby. His skinny arm lashed out as he snatched the card out of the air. "Hah, not bad."

"Hey, wha'd you get?" His buddy, a heavily-built guy about the same age, sauntered over to look at the card.

"Oh no - I caught it, this one's mine!"

"Hey! You..." The girls had finally caught up, but they all slowed to a stop as they looked up at the two sneering back at them. Kokoro managed, "G- give it back..."

The smaller one shot back, "Hey, finders keepers, runts."

"Wrong answer." Atsumi had strode past the others, standing a few feet away from those two. "Give it back."

The guy gave a skinny, toothy smile, took a step forward and said, "Yeah? Or else what?"

Five seconds later, he pulled himself back, gasping back a yell. Atsumi had kicked him hard in his skinny, bare shin, then before he could step back, she dug her fingernails into his wrist enough that his grip opened, allowing her to snatch the card. He massaged his wrist and glared as all four girls stepped back. The other one stepped up and said, "That's it, you're askin' for it..."

"Duel me!"

He blinked a time or two. "Whuh?"

"If you got the guts, then duel me, and then buzz off!"

A smile spread across his face. "Oh, so that's how you want it..." He motioned, and his grinning friend tossed him a duel disk.

Atsumi held out a hand, and Ishi mutely reached into her backpack and handed over their faded duel disk. Atsumi strapped it to her wrist, then loaded her own deck in one smooth motion. Taking up their positions in the street, she and her opponent activated their disks, drew five cards each, and called, "Duel!"

\\\

The guys had gotten a late start. Martha had collared the five of them by the front door as soon as they gathered to leave. No amount of fast talk from Micchan or Takuya could put her off the scent. She point-blank refused to let them wander the dump on their own, and Shun having packed along their duel disk didn't reassure her of their safety. After several promises to be careful with a dash of pleading, she decided that Saiga would go with them.

By the time they were all regrouped, Ichiro had met them at the front walk, and they were now on their way. Taiga and Ginga were horsing around as usual, and they were keeping away from Ichiro, who told Shun, "...so if I can get the third one, then Mr. Kuzuyama says he'll trade it to me, but in the meantime, he only lets me pick a common card at random for each one."

"Oh - no wonder you wanted Yellow Gadget so much. So what'd you get for it?"

"Pff - take a look."

"Huh... Miracle Dig? Haven't heard of it."

"Exactly." Saiga's gasp cut him off, and he led all the boys running the last block to reach the duel just starting up ahead.

"What the-" "Nagasawa-san?" "What's going on?" They met up with the girls on the sidelines, and Hikari explained, "Nagasawa-san had to get a card back from those guys, and now she's going to get rid of them with a duel!"

Kokoro called out, "Go, Nagasawa-san!" and Ishi murmured, "Good luck, onee-san."

Ichiro blinked at this and turned to Takuya. "Wait, wait - those two are _sisters_?"

"Yeah - Nagasawa Atsumi and Nagasawa Ishi. You didn't know?"

Ichiro looked at Atsumi, raring to duel, bright blue eyes flashing, shoulder-length reddish-brown hair back and out of the way. Ishi stood on the sidelines, glasses over her pale eyes, only somewhat looking at her sister, with her light brown hair put up kind of like his little sister wore it. "...Not really."

Atsumi became aware that the audience had grown, and then she noticed him. "Saiga-san..." She blinked and turned away again.

"I'm first," said the other guy. "Draw! I summon Marauding Captain!" The warrior sprang to the field, drawing one of his swords for battle.

_**Marauding Captain**_ - Earth Warrior LV 3 (ATK 1200)

"He lets me summon another monster, so I summon Zombyra the Dark!" This warrior wore a red cape, armor of bones, and a scowl at the opponent.

_**Zombyra the Dark**_ - Dark Warrior LV 4 (ATK 2100)

"Here's one more - my spell card, The A. Forces. The more warriors I have, the stronger my warriors get!"

_**Marauding Captain**_ - ATK 1200... ATK 1600

_**Zombyra the Dark**_ - ATK 2100... ATK 2500

"I'll set a card. End turn."

Atsumi just sniffed. "Draw. I summon Queen's Double."

_**Queen's Double**_ - Earth Warrior LV 1 (ATK 350)

This female fighter seemed regal enough in her purple robe, but the kids gaped at such a petite monster. Saiga waited to see the next move, while the other guy and his buddy just laughed, "That card's not strong enough to-"

"I activate a spell, Nobleman of Extermination. This destroys your face-down card and removes it from play."

"What? Ah, no..."

The skinny guy yelled, "Yanada! Try and use it first!"

"Huh?"

"If it's a trap, you can use it before it's destroyed!"

"...Oh, right. Heh, I activate my trap, Reinforcements! This gives my monster an extra 500 attack points!"

"Well, thank you."

"Whuh?"

"I'll chain the quick-play spell Rush Recklessly, which gives my monster 700 attack points!"

"It's still not enough-"

"Did I say I was done? Quick-play spell, Poison of the Old Man. I'll use this card's effect to deal 800 damage to you."

"What! Grr... done _now_?"

This time she smiled. "Just one more. Chain Strike! This spell deals 400 damage to you for each link in the chain so far!"

Seeing the dazed looks, Shun said, "Chain Links are cards that get used in response to other cards."

"Then... Nagasawa-san's played four cards!"

"Yeah, but there's five links - his card counts too!"

Atsumi called, "Go, Chain Strike!" Each of the cards glowed, and the spell gathered this energy into five flames. All at once, the flames each shot a spiked chain across the field, and Yanada winced as the holograms went right through his chest.

_**Yanada**_ - 4000 LP... 2000 LP

"Next, Poison of the Old Man." Her opponent was enveloped in purple smoke, leaving him coughing and fanning the air.

_**Yanada**_ - 2000 LP... 1200 LP

"Then our monsters get their power-ups."

_**Queen's Double**_ - ATK 350... ATK 1050

_**Marauding Captain**_ - ATK 1600... ATK 2100

"That leaves my last card, but there's nothing to hit anymore."

"You little... well, at least my monsters are safe."

"I don't give... I don't care about your monsters. My monster can attack you directly. Go, Queen's Double!" Knives appeared as if by magic into the junior warrior's hands, and she dodged around the enemies to fling them straight at the target, who yelled out and covered his face.

_**Yanada**_ - 1200 LP... 150 LP

"I set a card and end my turn." The magical light around the monsters faded.

_**Queen's Double**_ - ATK 1050... ATK 350

_**Marauding Captain**_ - ATK 2100... ATK 1600

Gritting his teeth, he yelled, "It's my-"

"Trap card, activate."

"Hey, I'm trying to-"

"Magical Explosion, which deals 200 damage for every spell in my graveyard!" Four green orbs of crackling energy appeared above her, swirling and swarming before gathering a massive bolt of energy among them.

"Oh, f-"

_**Yanada**_ - 150 LP... 0 LP

The guys stood back in awe, and the girls cheered for Nagasawa-san, who calmly switched off her duel disk and handed it back to her sister. Saiga said, "That was amazing."

"Oh! Well... thank you, I did my best. ...so, let's keep going." The group clustered around them and continued down the street. Only Ichiro looked back at the guy sprawled on his back, with his buddy leaning over him.

"Yanada and Nakamura... then-" He glanced quickly all around the block, but no one else was to be seen. He shuddered a bit, then hurried to rejoin the group.

Yanada sat up quickly, throwing off the other's stammers. "I'll get that little piece of trash for this if I have to-"

"Oh? And what would you do that you haven't done already?" They both looked up sharply at the guy walking out from his watching place in an alley. His hair was cut short like theirs, but his was tidy, and he wore a black coat over his street-worn clothes.

"Komada-san! Did you... I'm sorry, I couldn't-"

"No, no, don't worry about it. In fact, I think you've stumbled across something interesting for us to do today." He slunk down the street after the other group, his two compatriots immediately falling into silent, eager step behind him.

\\\

Ichiro was a bit surprised when he saw how happily the other kids scattered across the dump. They stayed somewhat in the same area, but each did their own thing, whether it was Ishi, Hikari and Kokoro wandering and talking, or Ginga and Taiga racing around and over the junk heaps. Atsumi and Saiga stood back a bit so they could keep a good eye on things. He turned to Takuya. "Didn't you guys come here to look for cards?"

"Sometimes. But we hang out here, too."

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, why here? You could be anywhere else."

Takuya blinked a bit, and Micchan spoke up. "I dunno, it's just our spot. We used to come here all the time." He looked around the new buildings being put up in all the surrounding blocks where, just a few months ago, there had been nothing but burned-out wrecks. "Not so much anymore, but it's still cool. Here, can you help me up?"

"What?"

Micchan pointed up at Takuya, who had already climbed atop one of the piles, and Shun, who had just managed to haul himself up. Ichiro shrugged, and as Micchan grabbed a handhold and jumped, Ichiro boosted his feet enough to clamber up the rest of the way.

Sticking to the ground, Ichiro just walked and checked out the place. They'd said that one could usually find a few cards somewhere around, though he guessed that they would be even more worthless than what he usually saw. Then he heard sounds of a struggle - Hikari had noticed something, and her friends had run over to help her. But the three of them together couldn't budge the pieces of wood in the way.

He walked over to take a closer look, and the three of them stepped away before noticing it was him. He had to admire their observation; he would never have glimpsed the card pinned between the boards. Then he noticed their expectant faces, and he sighed, stepping past them and grabbing the top board, prying it up just enough that Hikari could pick the card out.

"Thank you, Kobayashi-kun!"

"Forget it."

They turned to each other, then shrugged, smiled and went on their way. But Ishi hung back and whispered, "There's another in there."

"Huh?"

"Over there. But I knew none of us could reach it. Can you?"

He looked where she had pointed, and he just glimpse a card deep in the gap in the heap. With little maneuvering, he was just able to pluck the card with his fingertips. "Thanks - oh..." He remembered. Avoiding looking at the card, he said, "Did you want this?"

"What? Oh... oh, no, that's all right. But... what did you get?"

He looked and had to blink a couple times before he gathered his thoughts. "A level-four monster..."

"Oh, a crane." She smiled a bit. "I guess that makes that a lucky card!"

She scampered off before he could respond. He smiled anyway and added the card to his deck.

Time went on, and the group wandered further into the dump. Takuya thought he saw a rat dart by, and he chased after it. Immediately upon rounding a bend, he smacked into Ginga running the other way. "Ah! Sorry!"

"Ow... ah, it's okay."

Taiga sat down to rest, and he said, "Hey, Takuya-kun, I've been wondering. You really sure it was a good idea to invite Kobayashi?"

"What? Sure, I am."

"Sure, you beat him and all, but that doesn't mean we have to be friends with him."

"I know that, but he's changed now."

"Doesn't look like he wants to hang out with us much."

"Well, he..." Takuya looked around and realized Ichiro must have gone off on his own after all.

At the moment, their topic of conversation had finally found a route to the top of a pile, intending to find a spot that hadn't been checked yet. Then he noticed that Ishi had also gone off on her own, but then he saw she wasn't quite alone - the guys from earlier were slowly approaching her. She was flanked by walls of junked cars, leaving her only able to back up before the two - no, the _three_ of them. "Oh, crap... _Komada_..."

His face creased into a scowl, and he looked all around, finally spotting the older girl doing nothing but talking to that Saiga bum. "Hey, Nagasawa! Your sister's in trouble!" He didn't even watch to see her look around and panic - he just bounded down the slope, scooping up a chunk of rubble as he went.

Ishi looked all around, realizing there was no way to get past the three teenagers in front of her. The one in the front was smiling in a way that wasn't quite right, but just then, they could all hear a sliding and clanking noise. The one in front ducked aside without turning around just as the thrown rock smacked into the back of Yanada's knee. He howled in pain and staggered, while the other two wheeled around to see Ichiro skid jump to the ground and scoop up an old trash can lid.

The guy in the coat scoffed, "Well, what do we have here? The hero comes to save the day?"

"Shut up, Komada."

"Hm? Do I know you?"

As Ichiro gaped in surprise, Nakamura stepped up. "Want me to get him?"

"If you like." The lanky guy charged forward, lashing out with a punch.

Ichiro quickly brought up the lid, and the fist crunched right into it, leaving the other to wince and clutch his hand. Ichiro stepped forward to swing at him - that bruise on his leg looked vulnerable - when the punch from Komada sent him sprawling. He rolled over to see the other guy grin, kick aside his weapon and step closer for a more solid blow.

But the sound of footsteps made him glance back just in time to see Ishi having almost snuck past the fight. She hovered on the edge, but when he saw her, she darted away, squirming under a bus that had just barely enough room.

He scowled back at Ichiro, who had pushed himself to his feet. "You're really making trouble..."

"B- bring it on."

"Ishi!" Atsumi and all the rest had finally found their way to the scene. "What did you do to her?"

"I'm here, onee-san."

Atsumi helped pull her out from her hiding place. "How could- Don't go sneaking off like that! If Mom finds out about this-"

"I'm sorry... I just wanted to..."

Komada and the other two regrouped, and Saiga stared at all of them. He refrained from cracking his knuckles. "Get out of here."

Saiga was at least a head taller than the three across from him, but Komada slowly gathered his smile. "What, and leave little Ishi-chan without her bag?" They all looked around - sure enough, Ishi didn't have her backpack on, and she paled when she realized what all was in there.

Hikari spotted it some distance behind the trio. "There it is! Give it back!"

"But he just told us to leave. Maybe we really will just take our stuff and go." Nakamura grinned at the idea, elbowing Yanada when he was about to insist they stay. Komada went on, "Or, we could settle who stays and who goes some other way."

"We're not going anywhere." Ichiro stood tall, glaring straight at Komada. "But I'll be the one to wipe that smile off your face." He took out his deck, and Shun threw him the duel disk. Komada received his own disk from Nakamura, calmly loading his own deck.

They squared off, with the bag on one side and on the audience watching on the other, though the two thugs stood some distance from Saiga. But the opponents stared evenly at each other, drawing their cards simultaneously. "Duel!"

* * *

_Don't be reticent. / Don't be rude. / The story improves / When it's read and reviewed!_


	5. Return Soul

Komada reached for his deck first. "Why don't I start? Draw."

As he did so, Ichiro thought, _Komada... This time, you're going down._ Then he looked at the cards he was gripping. _Oh, no..._

Maintaining his half-smile, Komada said, "I'll set two cards, then summon Heavy Mech Support Platform in defense position." This monster was a small black space shuttle with twin rockets and red trim.

_**Heavy Mech Support Platform**_ - Dark Machine LV 3 (DEF 500)

"I'll end my turn there."

Micchan smiled. "A monster like that won't stand up to Kobayashi-kun's power deck!"

"Idiot," Taiga muttered. "He doesn't _have_ a power deck anymore, remember?"

"Oh, um..."

"It doesn't matter," said Takuya. "He can still do it!"

Ichiro kept grimacing. His hand held one ritual monster, but no spell for it and only one other monster. _And against this guy... Screw it, I'm going anyway!_ "Draw!" He looked at his hand again, and his scowl vanished. "I summon Ryu-Kishin Clown in attack position!" The costumed demon, squat and wrinkled, leapt laughing to the field.

_**Ryu-Kishin Clown**_ - Dark Fiend LV 2 (ATK 800)

The two thugs laughed. "That's the best you got?" "Junk cards like that won't hold up against our boss!"

"My monster's effect - whenever he's summoned, I change the battle position of a face-up monster on the field!" Enveloped in the demon's magic, the machine immediately rose from the ground, lighting its engines for battle while Komada kept his face blank.

_**Heavy Mech Support Platform**_ - DEF 500... ATK 500

"And now for a spell, Reasoning! You pick a level, and I pick up cards from my deck until I get a monster. Everything else goes to the graveyard, and if that monster's the level you picked, it goes too. But if it's not, I get to summon it!"

Komada grinned. "Hmm, what to pick... Perhaps you'll draw another monster like the undeniably strong one you've summoned now." The fragile clown stared back as he continued, "But I'd better be prepared. You must have all kinds of hidden strength. ...I'd say level _three_ should be enough."

Ichiro muttered, "Bastard..." Then he turned to his deck. The first card - not a monster. The second one - still no monster. The third... He tossed the first two, saying, "How's this for strength! Special summon - Sacred Crane!" The light in the sky burst forth, delivering a slender white bird with brightly-feathered crest and a song.

_**Sacred Crane**_ - Light Winged-Beast LV 4 (ATK 1600)

The other kids perked up. "Whoa - a new one!" "Ha, _told_ you he had power cards!" "Lucky!"

"And when this monster gets special summoned, I get to draw a card." This one secured his smile. "Go, Sacred Crane - attack his monster!" The bird swooped in, slashing and crushing the shuttle with its talons.

_**Komada**_ - 4000 LP... 2900 LP

"Ryu-Kishin Clown, direct attack!" The ball of dark magic shot straight into its unflinching target.

_**Komada**_ - 2900 LP... 2100 LP

Grabbing the latest card, he called, "And now... Go, ritual spell - Contract with the Abyss!" A pit opened up in Ichiro's field, filling with blue flames. "This lets me ritual summon any dark ritual monster from my hand, but I have to get the levels exactly right. I release my level two Ryu-Kishin Clown and my level four Sacred Crane!" The flames rushed up from the pit and swept up the two offerings into their depths.

With a concussion, a pillar of fire shot out, dissolving apart gradually to reveal a giant hamburger. But as soon as it was clear of the flames, it shook itself to life, hinging open to reveal rows of sharp teeth, bounding up and down in readiness for its prey. "Ritual summon - Hungry Burger!"

_**Hungry Burger**_ - Dark Warrior LV 6 (ATK 2000)

"I set two cards and end my turn."

Even Taiga was a bit impressed, though Atsumi didn't break a smile. Saiga nodded approvingly, and Micchan called, "Yeah - level six! What do you think of that?" Shun added, "And he's already taken out almost half that guy's life points!"

Their cheers for Kobayashi-kun made it a little harder for him to calm down, but he tried anyway. Even so, he stayed smiling.

"Ritual... summons... Oh, you're _that_ kid!" Seeing the blank looks from the other two, Komada added, "How could you forget him? We met him months ago, back behind the old fire station."

Atsumi seized on this. "Wait - you _know_ this guy? What, is he an old buddy of yours?"

"No!" Ichiro turned back from his retort to glare at Komada. "But I met him before."

"Yes, and wasn't that fun? This guy - Kobayashi-kun, is it? - he marches up to the three of us and says how powerful his deck is. So he challenges us and bets his deck against any of ours. Fortunately, the bet we agreed on wasn't _that_ severe-"

"Shut up! That's not how it was at all!"

The big thug, Yanada, stepped forward a bit. "You callin' boss a liar?"

"What _happened_ was-" He stopped, then tried again. "What happened was, I thought my ritual deck would work better if I had higher-level monsters. I was walking by, and I heard these guys talking about the great monsters they found. So I went up and asked to trade. And _this_ guy," he glared across, "wouldn't even touch my cards."

Komada shrugged and didn't answer.

"So he makes a deal. I can borrow any monsters I want from these other guys' decks, and then I duel him. If I win, I keep the cards. If I lose, I give them all back plus... plus that many cards from my deck."

Kokoro blinked, "But.. you won, right? ...Right?"

Taiga muttered. "What do _you_ think? He lost."

"But... if he had a lot of good monsters-"

"No, that's _why_ he lost." They turned to look at Takuya, who remembered how strictly Ichiro had stuck to the level four limit. "You picked cards that were too high of a level, and you couldn't use them, could you?"

"I got the ritual spell, but not the monster."

The other thug, Nakamura chimed in. "Huh, he barely had _any_ monsters. He played one monster in defense, and inside of three turns, the boss beat him!"

Shun dared to ask, "How... how many cards did you lose?"

Ichiro glared. "Nine."

Shock broke out on every face. Most of the time, it could take weeks if not months for one kid to find that many cards. "What - how could you!"

"Look, I messed up, I know! I shouldn't have-"

"Not you, him!"

"Huh?" Whatever Ichiro had expected, it wasn't this. "What are you talking about?"

Micchan spoke up. "I bet he knew you would do that and wanted you to mess it up that badly."

"Thanks a lot-"

"No, really! It isn't right for someone to take that much from someone!"

Ichiro couldn't figure what to say, but Atsumi did. "Kobayashi did the same thing."

"Yeah, but... But at least he said he was sorry."

Atsumi scoffed, Ichiro shook his head in disbelief, and Komada said, "If you're _done_?" Eyes back on him, he said, "Thank you. Draw! I'll set one card. Now, I guess it's only fair to use this card. Activate continuous trap, Limit Reverse!"

As soon as Ichiro saw it, his glare transformed into seething. "One of mine..."

"I'll also add the continuous trap, Cyber Summon Blaster. Whenever I special summon a machine, 300 points of damage get inflicted to you. And now, Limit Reverse brings back my Heavy Mech Support Platform in attack position!" The machine sprang from the summon, and an armored cart with a laser cannon on top appeared beside it. The cannon's dish crackled with energy then blasted Ichiro with a beam as big as he was.

_**Ichiro**_ - 4000 LP... 3700 LP

"Next, I'll activate Card Destruction, so we discard our hands and draw that many cards."

_Huh, fat lot of good Science Soldier was doing me anyway_. He drew, and he blinked at it. _No way... you're here?_

Komada, having replaced two cards, said, "Now, let's play a little game."

Something was very wrong with the snicker in his voice. "Hang on... what did you-"

"Face-down, activate - the spell card, Question!"

"What? You lousy-"

"Oh, do you know this one? Name the monster on the bottom of my graveyard. Get it right, and it's removed from play. Get it wrong, and it's summoned."

Kokoro shot, "That's not fair! You should have let him see! Did any of you see it?"

The two thugs protested, but Takuya shook his head. "He used Big Bang Shot to cover up the other card."

Ichiro glared, then called, "I say it's Fusilier Dragon, the Dual Mode Beast!"

Komada raised his eyebrows a bit. "Huh... well, I suppose you _would_ guess that - but, no. I've got a new ace monster now. Special summon!" The ground lit up, and a massive machine rose up. Its ash-grey metal was sculpted into the shape of a dragon, with gun barrels for arms and one more with sharp jaws for the head. With a mechanical roar, it towered over Ichiro and his monster.

_**Barrel Dragon**_ - Dark Machine LV 7 (ATK 2600)

Even Saiga was taken aback by the sudden appearance of this monster. Ichiro grimaced as Komada added, "And this summon activates my trap again!" The blaster charged and fired almost before Ichiro had time to flinch.

_**Ichiro**_ - 3700 LP... 3400 LP

"Next, I'll use the effect of Heavy Mech Support Platform!" The shuttle disassembled itself, the pieces swarming around Barrel Dragon. Bit by bit, the rockets, fins, armor and all the rest fitted themselves onto the larger machine's back, arms, torso and legs.

_**Barrel Dragon**_ - ATK 2600... ATK 3100

"And now for my Barrel Dragon's effect - if I can get two of its three barrels to fire, your monster gets destroyed!" The three guns immediately set their chambers spinning, each slowly towards a stop.

The first shot hit the ground and made all the kids jump. The second clicked with an empty snap. And the third fire was right on target, shattering the snarling enemy with one quick burst.

All at once, Ichiro's field was empty, and he wasn't fooled by someone saying that at least his life points were still pretty high. Sure enough, Komada was already calling, "Go, Cannon Soldier!" This purple and gold robot stood up to the middle of the other, with a computerized cannon in place of a face.

_**Cannon Soldier**_ - Dark Machine LV 4 (ATK 1400)

"So long, Kobayashi-kun. Barrel Dragon, direct attack!" All three cannons loaded themselves, swiveling down to point straight at their target.

"Continuous trap activate - Graceful Revival!"

"What?"

"This summons a level two or lower monster from my graveyard in attack position."

The two guys scoffed at this, but Komada remembered. "No..."

"I revive Ryu-Kishin Clown!" Two angels lifted a ghost from the earth, which then became the solid, smiling demon.

_**Ryu-Kishin Clown**_ - Dark Fiend LV 2 (ATK 800)

"And that means one monster changes position!" He pointed, and the clown cast its spell, forcing the shuddering mechanical dragon to its knees.

_**Barrel Dragon**_ - ATK 3100... DEF 2700

The kids cheered, "Yeah, take that!" "Not so weak now, huh?"

"You... you little- Cannon Soldier, attack!" The new monster sighted on target, and Komada picked out the last card in his hand. "Quick-play spell, Limiter Removal! All my machine monsters double their attack points until the end of the turn!" Both monsters surged with a rush of electricity, causing them to convulse until the spell completed its work.

_**Cannon Soldier**_ - ATK 1400... ATK 2800

The robot gathered its power into its cannon and fired with a great explosion. The blast went through the clown as if it didn't exist, and it went on to hit Ichiro, who winced even behind a raised arm.

_**Ichiro**_ - 3400 LP... 1400 LP

Komada worked to catch his breath, saying, "In my end phase, Limiter Removal will destroy the monsters it's affected. So I'll release Cannon Soldier for its own effect, dealing 500 damage to you!" The monster was again seized with a shock, but this time, its body was dissolving into energy from bottom to top. Just before it vanished completely, the energy had enough time to gather into the cannon and fire once more.

_**Ichiro**_ - 1400 LP... 900 LP

"Turn end." Barrel Dragon quaked with electricity again, and the explosion filled Komada's whole field with noise, fire and smoke. Gradually, the smoke cleared, and the kids were horrified to see Barrel Dragon still there, though without its armor. "What... how did it-"

_**Barrel Dragon**_ - DEF 2700... DEF 2200

Shun answered, "That support machine doesn't just increase its strength. It also keeps it from being destroyed."

Ginga realized, "Then it'll still be there on the next turn, and if it uses its effect again-"

Taiga summarized, "He's toast."

Komada took a deep breath and smiled. "You know, Kobayashi-kun, we've still got all the other cards we got from you. If you want, we can make another deal. Nine more cards against the other nine. What do you say?"

The other kids gaped at his nerve, they couldn't believe he could say such a thing. Ichiro could.

"Oh, don't you want them anymore? Just say the word, and it's a bet."

Ichiro gritted his teeth, struggling to swallow back his words.

"_I'll_ take that bet!"

Everyone wheeled around, but no one was sure who had spoken until Ishi repeated, "Nine against nine!"

Atsumi spoke up, "No- no, she doesn't bet that-"

"Yes, I do!" Staring straight at Komada, she spat, "I'm not going to just let you keep talking like we're trash! Kobayashi-kun actually had the nerve to put together a deck he likes, but you don't even care! You just want to break it apart and take what you can from it. But I want you to see that it's not weak, and neither is any of us. Maybe when you have to give back the good cards he had, you'll see that Kobayashi-kun's no pushover!"

No one could speak after that, but once he recovered, Ichiro managed, "How- what makes you think..."

She looked at him. "You gave me my card back." Setting her face, she added, "You're not the same as you were. You can beat him now."

Saiga spoke up, "And Komada knows that, too."

This confused everyone, not to mention Komada. "Excuse me?"

"He equipped Heavy Mech Support Platform before he started attacking. If he hadn't, he could have had a third monster for attacking and for his Cannon Soldier."

Shun put it together. "He thought Ichiro had a trap to destroy his monster!"

Ichiro smiled at his opponent. "Did you now?"

"It doesn't matter. It seems you couldn't beat him after all."

"Hey, I couldn't _destroy_ him. Not then, anyway. But I can still beat him." Looking back to Ishi, he said, "Thanks, but you should let me take the-" Seeing her work to keep up her resolve, he sighed and amended, "Let me take _half_ of the bet. We'll split it between the two of us."

She dropped her eyes again and was about to nod when they heard, "You mean the three of us." They looked at Takuya, who affirmed, "Count me in."

Micchan smiled and said, "Four, then." Shun announced himself, "Five!" and Kokoro and Hikari became six and seven.

Atsumi was as surprised as Saiga at all of this, though he was the only one beaming to see it. She snuck a look at him, but she remembered he didn't have cards anymore. Then she noticed that Kokoro and Hikari were prodding the other two boys.

"What?" Taiga looked at Ginga, who shrugged. "...all right fine, we're in."

The friends all laughed, and even Ichiro had to smile. "You guys are all crazy." He turned back to Komada. "You heard us. One each from us against those nine. Deal?"

The other guy waved a hand. "Of course."

"Then it's my turn. Draw!" Swinging out the card, he looked at it. "You've got to be kidding me." He glanced back to the others, focusing on Takuya for an instant. _...nah, couldn't be. Well, doesn't matter._ Holding the next card high, he called, "I summon Sonic Bird in attack position!" Takuya cheered ahead of the rest as the bald eagle flew to the field, armored in its goggles and air tank.

_**Sonic Bird**_ - Wind Winged-Beast LV 4 (ATK 1400)

"When this monster gets normal summoned, I can move any ritual spell from my deck to my hand!" Picking out the card, he blinked once and thought, _Thank you... dad._ "Go, ritual spell - Advanced Ritual Art!"

"Huh?" "He has a new one?"

A giant square altar of stone appeared in front of Ichiro, filling his whole field. "This one lets me release normal monsters with exactly the right amount of levels, but it lets me summon _any_ ritual monster from my hand!"

"A universal ritual?... But that won't help you - you only have that one card in your hand!"

"But that's the best part - these monsters get released from my _deck_!"

"What? You- you couldn't-"

Fanning his deck out, Ichiro called, "Let's do this. I release Gigobyte, Skull Servant, Mega Thunderball, Firegrass and Psychic Kappa!" The five monsters appeared on the altar, which blazed with lines of green fire, joining them into a star.

The kids looked to Shun, but Saiga was the one who answered, "That's two level one monsters and three level two monsters. The total is eight."

"Then... that means-"

From the sky above, a bolt of power struck the field, and all the monsters became clouds of shining energy that spiraled together to open a summoning portal. For an instant, nothing moved, and then a pair of claws reached from the portal, followed by the shell-armored mass of a monster they all recognized.

"Ritual summon - Crab Turtle!"

_**Crab Turtle**_ - Water Aqua LV 8 (ATK 2550)

Komada looked quickly between the new monster and his kneeling dragon. "That won't finish me."

"Yeah, it will. Because my Sonic Bird's about to call for a little _extra_ backup. Trap card activate, Deal of Phantom! For the rest of this turn, one of my monsters gains 100 attack points for every monster in my graveyard!" The eagle cried to the sky, which immediately became filled with the ghosts of all the fallen monsters. Crab Turtle stood at the ready while Sonic Bird flew up to join the swarm.

_**Sonic Bird**_ - ATK 1400... ATK 2300

"Go, Sonic Bird - destroy Barrel Dragon!" The eagle led the charge as all the monsters struck out, smashing into the machine, which roared, crumpled and finally exploded under the barrage.

"No... no!"

"Well, so long... Komada. Crab Turtle, direct attack!" The crimson beast crouched, then rushed forward, claws churning as it bore down on its opponent. Only when its shadow fell across the enemy did it one claw finally lash out.

_**Komada**_ - 2100 LP... 0 LP

The kids ran forward to congratulate Ichiro, while the other two ran forward to tend to their boss, who had been forced to one knee with the attack. He shook them off, gnashing his teeth before finally pushing himself to his feet. Before he could even think up something new, the kids immediately moved to surround them, with Ishi snatching up her hostage backpack.

Atsumi, Takuya, Saiga and Ichiro all stepped forward. "A deal's a deal. Hand them over and get lost."

Komada looked all around the group for an opportunity, but his thoughts were derailed when he saw Yanada and Nakamura each whip out their couple of cards, drop them to the ground and flee. All alone, he snarled, dug out the rest of them, and flung them into Ichiro's face. Before Ichiro could retort, the other had already taken off, shoving Shun and Micchan out of the way in his escape.

The kids laughed and yelled a few parting taunts as they picked up the fallen cards. Saiga turned to Ichiro. "Good job there."

"Thanks..." He picked up his Limit Reverse and stared at it. "And thanks, guys, for- for backing me up on that."

"No problem." Takuya held out the card he'd picked up, but Ichiro didn't reach for it.

"Maybe... well, you guys all stuck out your necks for me. Maybe you should keep those."

No one said anything, including Taiga, who had instantly gotten a glare from Hikari. But after a few awkward seconds, Ishi walked forward and looked up at him. For the first time, he noticed that her eyes were a light but distinct tint of blue, and he couldn't believe he had really thought they were grey.

Then he saw she was holding out the card she'd picked up. "Here." She added a smile. "Yours."

The words jogged his memory, and he grinned back. But when he accepted the card, he realized, _What? Huh, figures she would pick up this one. Pretty much the lowest-level card I ever had_... "Thanks, Nagasawa-chan."

The rest of the kids promptly followed with the other cards, and Saiga decided it had been long enough, and they ought to get going if they planned on being home in time for dinner. The blocks blurred past as the kids went back to chattering about what would be for dinner the night and too bad Daichi was feeling sick and no way did you see a swarm of rats in that alley, you gotta be making it up.

As Ishi silently clutched her backpack again, Atsumi said goodbye to all of them and even gave a slight nod to Ichiro before taking her sister and steering her home. Ichiro walked a little farther then he really had to before breaking off towards his own house. He figured he might not want to tell his parents all the details of what had happened today, but if the fist bump between him, Takuya, Shun and Micchan was any sign, there could be lots of other things happening soon enough.

\\\

Komada had lost track of the other two - either he had missed a turn, or else they were much faster than he had thought. Still, they should be somewhere around-

His foot caught a piece of junk, and he stumbled headlong to the ground. For a few seconds, he didn't move, thoughts beating on what he had to do, what would happen because of this. Gritting, he pushed himself up, but only got up to his knees when he caught view of something in the setting sun. The angle of light went right to the heart of a pile of debris, and he frantically crawled to it. He fished in, stretching as far as he could, because if this was what he thought it was...

He pulled out the card, looked, then gasped and looked closer. Little by little, a smirk became a smile, and then a fierce laugh. Getting up, he tucked away the card and dusted himself off, then strode calmly down the path and out of the junkyard. First, he would track those two down, and then, he would really be able to have some fun.

* * *

_Comments, please! Thanks for visiting, and see you around the archives!_


	6. An Unfortunate Report

The rain from that morning made it riskier to drive quickly, but the uniformed officer kept his black-and-white D-Wheel at a sure, smooth pace. It may have been a while, but he still knew the route perfectly, and he soon pulled up in front of the house just as Saiga diverted a couple of kids from starting a mud fight for the third time.

The grizzled teenager smiled to see the officer, who took off his helmet, revealing a face with big, black eyebrows and a deep scar down one cheek. But the kids didn't shy away from that face. "Good afternoon, Mr. Ushio."

"Afternoon, kids - Saiga. Is Martha home?"

"Yeah, they should be finishing up lunch right about now."

Sure enough, the dining room was a jumble of kids taking dishes to the sink and kids trying to escape any type of dish-related chore. Then one voice broke out. "Ushio-san!" Takuya dashed over, and Ushio gave him a friendly cuff on the shoulder.

"Hey, Takuya. You been staying good for Martha?"

"You bet I have. Hey, do you want some gyudon? We've got extra."

"No, I just came here to-"

"Nonsense." Martha had finished getting everyone sorted out. "Sit. The kids made this one themselves."

The smell of the beef still wafted from the serving bowls. "Well... I do have a few minutes." Takuya was already setting up a place for him.

Soon it was just the three of them left, with Takuya already regaling Ushio with how he'd used Montage Dragon for the first time. Ushio laughed, "Nice one. I knew you'd use that card well. You'll be a Security yet."

Martha added, "And what about you? I heard you caught those D-Wheel thieves."

"Oh, yeah - Kazama's already out of the hospital, but he won't be riding a D-Wheel for a while. 'Course, knowing him, he'll be back on the road the second he gets the chance." Takuya wondered at such courage, and Ushio smiled at him. "You planning on being a riding duelist, Takuya?"

"Me? That'd be cool! But... I gotta keep practicing on the ground."

Ushio laughed again, then turned solemn. "Actually, we had a strange arrest about a week ago. An officer on patrol found a man we've wanted for breaking and entering. The man was heavily bruised, and a sprained ankle meant he wasn't running anywhere."

Martha frowned. "What's strange about that?"

"He was found wearing a duel disk, even with the cards still on it. Either he got hurt before walking up to a duel, which we doubt..." He shook his head and concluded, "or he got injured during the duel."

She gasped a bit. "A psychic duelist?"

Takuya tried to take this in. Of course he knew what psychic duelists were - the Fortune Cup had shown that easy enough. Seemed like you hardly heard anything about them before all that Dark Signer stuff (he shuddered to remember), then just like that, the secret was out. _And now there's one around here! This is so cool, I gotta tell the guys-_

Ushio was speaking again, "...so it's unlikely that he'll make a case of it, but we did get a description of the other person."

Martha's eyes narrowed. "It isn't a crime to be a psychic duelist, is it?"

"No, no. But it- it's dangerous. So we want to make sure it doesn't keep happening. Gotta keep people safe, of course. Right, Takuya?"

"Right! So have you found the guy yet?"

"It's a girl, actually."

"Huh?"

"Martha, I wondered if you might recognize her - this was only a few blocks away from here." Taking out his notebook, he read, "Female, ten or eleven years old, black hair, gray eyes, wearing very old and ripped clothes." He passed a sketch to Martha, and Takuya saw it too.

"Kazumi-chan!"

Ushio turned in shock. "You- you know this girl?"

"Yeah, she's my friend." Ushio regrouped his thoughts, and Takuya put it together too. "Wait, you think she's a _psychic_? No way!"

"The man was very clear-"

"She's not! We've dueled before, and she's not!"

"Well, even so, I think I should- we should talk to her about this."

"Oh. That... that's not a good idea. Kazumi-chan... doesn't like Securities."

Ushio blinked and tried another smile. "I only want to ask her a few questions."

He paused, then grimaced. "No, she _really_ doesn't-"

"It's all right, Takuya." Martha gave him a meaningful look. "Let me talk this over with Ushio."

"...okay, Martha. Thank you for visiting, Ushio-san."

Outside, Shun called Takuya over, and Micchan asked, "So, how's Ushio doing?"

"He's all right. He wanted to talk to Kazumi-chan, though."

"Oh... where's she been, anyway?"

"She... actually, I don't know." She'd only recently started coming to dinner regularly, but now she'd missed five of them in a row. In fact, Takuya hadn't seen her at _all_ this week.

Shun shrugged. "If she doesn't want to some around anymore, that's her business."

That got a smile from Micchan. "Still sore that she beat you?"

"It wasn't that bad!"

"I thought it was a shutout-"

"Acutally, guys," Takuya spoke up, "I'm kinda worried about her." Seeing their funny looks, he added, "She's our friend, right?" More funny looks. "But this is important. Ushio-san thinks she's a psychic duelist, but there's no way. But he thinks she might be dangerous."

"A psychic duelist? Cool!"

Micchan countered, "Shun!"

Then Takuya's eyes fell on his skates by the door. "Wait... Ushio-san can't go, but I can!"

Micchan's eyes lit up. "Hey, yeah. It's like an investigation!"

Shun asked, "Do you even know where she is?"

That barely slowed him up. "I think I do. I'll find her." He ran over to swap his shoes, and as en extra thought, he sent Micchan to sneak around back to the kitchen and pack up some of the leftovers. Minutes later, he was moving down the rough sidewalk, digging through his memory for where to go.

\\\

_The two of them had finished the day's race, but this time, they were both drawn back to Martha's by the sight of not one but three D-Wheels in the drive. Kazumi sized them up - one black, one white, one read, with flashier shapes than any other she'd seen, but she guessed they were higher-powered too. But Takuya recognized the owners - there was Crow, with his "siblings" hanging off of him and laughing as much as him, and that blonde one had to be Jack Atlas, who was a bit less amused at the admiring kids flocking around his legs. And there, talking to Martha, the one with the dark hair and blue eyes... "Yusei!"_

"_Huh? Hey, who are those guys?"_

"_What? You don't know?"_

"_Should I?" But her eyes were drawn to the criminal markers on Crow's and Yusei's faces._

"_They're all kids of Martha's, and they all teamed up against those... those Dark Signers." He pushed himself to cheer up, adding, "Crow raised half of these kids, and they say his D-Wheel can fly! Jack used to be the Riding Duel King, and he has a deck full of tough dragons! And then there's Yusei - he's the one who beat Jack, and he's a super mechanic!"_

_Only at this last point did Kazumi's attention catch. "Mechanic?"_

"_Oh yeah, he can fix anything. He made that D-Wheel from junk parts, and there's never been a faster one!"_

"_Fix anything..." She was looking at Yusei, but not really seeing him. Her hand opened and closed a couple of times, and finally, she spun around and started skating away._

"_Wait, Kazumi-chan-"_

"_I'll be back soon, Takuya-kun! Keep them there!"_

_It was a very close thing - Jack seemed ready to say they should leave, but Takuya got Crow's kids to keep talking to their big brother about what they'd been up to. He bought an extra fifteen minutes at least by asking Yusei's advice on how to improve his deck. Finally, Kazumi skidded back up to the front walk, now with a satchel over her shoulder that Takuya hadn't seen her use before._

_She paused a bit before slowly approaching Yusei, staring at him. Then she opened the bag and held it out without handing it over. "Can you fix this?"_

_Takuya looked and saw a jumble of white and blue angular plastic and metal... no, they were pieces - pieces of a duel disk!_

_Yusei smiled, "Sure."_

_It wasn't until after dinner that they had finished - Kazumi had point-blank refused to let Yusei take the disk home to work on. Crow and the kids were clowning around cleaning up just as much as when they were cooking. Jack was sharing coffee with Martha, who had just asked who was this Carly that Crow had mentioned. And Yusei was outside, tightening the last screws on the disk housing. "Here you go. But while you're here, I noticed that your skates-"_

"_They're fine."_

_Yusei didn't break stride. "I meant that the wheels are a little loose. I can fix that now, won't even take ten minutes."_

_She stared at him again, then grudgingly handed them over. He fixed them without a word, smiling as he returned them. She nodded, "G'night, Takuya-kun. Yusei." Halfway to the road, she paused before leaving. "And... thanks."_

\\\

That had been a while ago. Until then, she had never really told him where she stayed during the night. But knowing that it was somewhere close got him curious again, and she eventually told him, describing an old, deserted office building barely six blocks away from Martha's. _If the rain kept her inside..._ He pulled up to the pitted building, blinking to adjust his eyes as he stepped in. It soon opened up into a giant lobby, which thankfully still let some light through its grubby windows. The floor was decorated with occasional fruit rinds, plastic wrappers, and quite a few puddles, meaning the ceiling couldn't be much better than the floor.

And there she was, sitting near a sunbeam, her back to one of the support pillars. She was still wearing her skates - _maybe she just finished practicing?_ For now, she was looking through a wrinkled magazine, one finger tracing each line carefully, but she looked up when she heard the sound of wheels crossing the threshold. "Takuya-kun?"

"Hey, Kazumi-chan!"

"What's going on? Why are you here?"

"Haven't seen you in a while, I wanted to see how you're doing." As he reached her, he held out the box. "I brought some lunch. It's gyudon."

"It's all right, I already-" but the sudden sound of a grumble cut her off, and she eventually took the box. "...Thanks, Takuya-kun."

They both sat down, but as usual, she wasn't given to start conversations while she ate. Takuya said, "Haven't seen you in a while. How have you been?"

"Okay."

"You sure? 'Cuz if you needed any help-"

"I'm fine."

Before he lost his nerve, Takuya blurted out, "Look, something's happened. I- I heard some people talking about you, saying they saw you in a duel somewhere around here." There was no answer. "And that the other guy lost, and that he got hurt. Like, for real." Still nothing. "Kazumi-chan... they think you're a psychic duelist. But you can't be."

Her face didn't change, but instead of chewing, her teeth were clenching.

"_Are_ you?"

"...He tried to take my deck. I just wanted to get rid of him. And now they're-"

"Wait, Kazumi-chan, I don't think you're in trouble for it. Not really. But- folks still want to find you. To know who did it."

"I'm _not_ turning myself in!"

"No, no- but, but maybe, if they just knew it was you, and they knew you wouldn't do it again, maybe it'd be okay."

She looked away again. "He screamed, you know. I hate that sound."

Maybe he could cheer her up instead. "Being a psychic isn't so bad. I mean, to be able to bring monsters to life? I think that's cool! It's like a duel become real, and you c-"

"Stop it!" She actually had her hands over her ears.

"W- what's wrong?"

"I don't- I _hate_ them..."

"What? But- no, it's okay..."

She calmed down a bit, took a few deep breaths, and whispered, "I- I never told you how my dad died..."

He inched a little closer. "Your dad?"

"I mean, I don't even remember my mom, but he-" A skittering noise made them both look up.

Halfway to sneaking behind another pillar, the intruder hadn't noticed the bottle on the floor until he'd kicked it. Sighted, he froze and gasped, confusing Takuya. "Ushio-san? I thought I said-"

Kazumi screeched and stood up, dropping the food heedlessly. "_Him?_ You brought him _here?_"

"What? No, no I told him- wait, Kazumi-chan!" She had already taken off, scooping up her satchel from the ground and dashing towards the back of the building. Ushio yelled for her to hold on, but he first two steps set him slipping on a puddle and crashing to the ground. Takuya kept his footing as he skated after her, but she was already far away. "Stop! I didn't tell him to be here!"

"You led him here! Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"I- I-"

"Forget it! Why don't you go back to _Ushio-san_?"

"No, I told him not- wait, what are you..?" Even while keeping her stride, she had reached into her satchel and pulled out her beloved duel disk, strapping it on and activating it in one move. "Kazumi-chan, this is no time for a duel!"

"Don't you remember? I'm a psychic. I don't have to duel you to get rid of you. I just need one good card." Reaching to one particular pocket, she swung out a card.

He only got a glimpse, but it made Takuya gasp, "Wait, was that... you have a _synchro_ monster?"

"Go - Rogue Raptor!" The light made him wince, and he almost was brought to a halt at what came out. It was a snarling dinosaur, only about a foot taller than him but much longer from nose to tail. Its scales were various mottled shades of brown and gray, crisscrossed with gashes and scars. Both feet tore up the ground as it charged forward, bloodshot slit-eyes set on the door that its master had nearly reached.

"K- Kazumi-"

"Go away, Maeda!" She shot out the doorway, and her monster could hardly be small enough to fit through - _no way!_ As it exited, it whipped its tail and claws sideways, and the doorway smashed! The wall shook with the impact, and cracks run up and around it as giant pieces of masonry tumbled down right at him-

"Takuya!" Giant hands snagged him and pulled back, tackling him in the effort to stop him. The rubble continued to crash for several seconds, but the dust took longer to clear.

Takuya wriggled out of Ushio's grip, clambering over top of the debris heap. "Kazumi-chan!" The street was already empty in both directions, the many alleys laughing in his face. He wheeled around. "What did you do that for! You weren't supposed to- She didn't even do anything..."

The officer reached for his hand, but he jerked it away, "Get away from me, Ushio!" He tried to skate away, but stumbled to his knees, skidding both his palms into the pavement to catch himself. But he ignored that pain, blinking back tears that must have been due to the grit in his eyes.

High overhead, the clouds had never really cleared. Block by block, the rain swept onto the city again.

* * *

_[Dunh dunh DUNH!] This is where I'm aiming to make the story (and the duels, for that matter) a little more involved. But it's no good putting effort into it if I've got no clue of whether or not I'm holding the audience, so please leave a review!_


	7. Overworked: Dash Warrior, Ceasefire

_Bad news first: the story is on indefinite hiatus. Good news: I want to tie it off somewhere halfway decent, or at least say what the plot point was meant to be, so here's the next _**_two_**_ chapters in condensed format for your reading convenience._

_If you're curious, my reasons for stopping the story are at the very bottom of this "chapter" - including quite a few lessons about writing that I discovered after some literary soul-searching. Without further ado, I give you... "Overworked: A Conclusion in Two Parts"_

* * *

Act 1: Dash Warrior

Ushio gets Takuya back to Martha's safely, minus a scrape on the boy's leg from when he got pulled to the ground. Martha manages to keep her composure when she hears what Kazumi did to get rid of them, and Ushio says goodbye to Takuya, but the boy flinches away. As soon as the officer is gone, Martha immediately warns Takuya to not pursue this. He's surprised because that's exactly what he'd been planning on doing, this time without any chance of being followed. But she overrules his surprise - yes, Kazumi is his friend, but she's very confused right now, and it's not a good idea to confront her. When Takuya mutters that it can't be worse than what Ushio did, Martha tells him to watch his mouth. She calms down a bit, and she assures him that adults make mistakes just like kids do, but they're still best prepared for tricky situations like this.

Takuya's anger fades slightly, but then Martha tells him to promise that he's going to leave this to the Securities. He freezes, because he is very loyal to his promises, and he's _never_ broken one to Martha. But she is firm, and he stammers the promise.

But over the next few days, he catches glimpses of Kazumi around town, always at a distance, and he's always with Martha or Saiga. She doesn't look in any better shape, and he's hearing gossip about other parts of Satellite getting trashed. He's feeling more and more glum; he really hopes the Securities looking for her know what they're doing. That's a notion he's never questioned, but he questions it now. If she loses it again and uses her psychic powers to actually attack an officer, then she'd _really_ be in trouble. And he's afraid that she'd do it, too. Although come to think of it, he doesn't even know why Kazumi hates Securities so much, anyway.

When his buddies see him moping around, they try to get him to open up. Bit by bit, he tells them what's worrying him. Micchan puts up with it for all of five seconds before he tells him to snap out of it. He and Shun eventually remind Takuya that Kazumi's really short on friends right now, and that it's more important to talk this over with her and get her to calm down than it is for him to keep that one promise.

The next morning, Shun and Micchan run a little interference, diverting Martha and Saiga just long enough for Takuya to sneak out the door then dash off. He waits until he's out of sight before sitting down to put his skates on, and then he's off. It takes a lot of searching, but he eventually checks the dump. (He remembers when he first met Kazumi. He was climbing junk heaps, looking for cards on his own, and he slipped. His legs dropped right into a crevasse in the heap, and he was stuck waist-deep in the pile, lacking the upper-body strength to push himself out. When he saw a girl racing past on roller skates, he called out, and she paused, eventually deciding to help him out without a word. Later, he found skates of his own, and he thought of her, and he found her practicing in the same spot. It was a little while before she introduced herself, and even longer before she agreed to introduce herself to anyone else, but if nothing else, she made at least one friend.)

He finds her, and she's got her skates off, instead rummaging for cards in the trash. He thinks quickly and swipes one skate, hiding it before she notices him. She's furious, and she's about to switch her duel disk on, but he beats her to the punch. This surprises her, as he's never been big on fighting, but he says he just wants to talk to her. He turned his disk on because he doesn't want her going straight for a psychic summon, and if she tries turning her disk on now, it'll start a duel and she'll have to play by the rules. She's fine with that, and she sets a bet - if she wins, he leaves her alone for good. He agrees, but if she wins, she has to lay off and come back to Martha's so they can get this all cleared up. She agrees, but she's really determined to win now.

Takuya's improved his defensive strategies, but Kazumi specializes in swarming earth monsters, and her attacking monsters keep the pressure on. He doesn't take any damage, which he's glad about because he was worried about how badly a psychic duel might hurt. It all goes wrong when she summons her Synchro monster, which has a couple effects that let it destroy cards on the field one by one. With his defenses breaking and damage coming from multiple directions, Takuya is blown off his feet, even bleeding from getting battered by chunks of rubble, with his legs and arms skinned up from getting slammed to the ground. She warns him to quit, but he doesn't, instead using Graceful Charity and hoping for a turnaround.

He gets one, but it takes some deciding. Then he makes up his mind and tosses his Montage Dragon and Dark Factory of Mass Production, keeping Card Trooper and some other cards instead. She realizes that he just gave up the chance to summon his card from Ushio, and he's not sorry about it. Then he uses Card Trooper for attacking instead of defending, and instead of talking like a big hero, he starts kidding around with her like they've done in the past. She doesn't drop her aggression right away, but when he's able to dodge her attacks anyway and he repeats that he just wants to help, she slows down and eventually decides to talk.

She doesn't want to go back with him or anyone because of what happened during the most frightened and weakened time of her life. Her mom died before she knew her, and she was raised by her dad. Him working to support the two of them meant she had to look after herself a lot, but he kept her on track and they were very close. But when they were out after dark one night, they had a run-in with a man in a trench-coat with a weird auburn hairdo. The man and her father got to fighting, but when she tried to fight him too, he used a card to freeze her, showing that he was a psychic. He then got serious fighting her dad, beating him down and leaving. But by the time she could move, she realized he was bleeding even worse than she thought.

He was taken to the hospital, and she wouldn't leave his side. The Securities, however, were hounding her for details about the fight. With the Arcadia Movement at its peak of strength and secrecy, this was a rare chance for them to have some dirt on a psychic, and they wanted his name, a description, anything. They eventually got her aside, but she didn't know much, and her thoughts weren't clear anyway. Just then, the doctors became very active, and then much less. She ran back, but her father was already dead. She cried, but only for a little bit, because now she wanted payback, and she turned back to the Securities to help them however she could. But a call had just reached them, and they were grumbling and shaking their heads. Godwin's orders - all details of the investigation were now out of their hands, to be handled by Neo Domino City's troops. And they muttered that this meant the matter would never be heard of again.

Her father was gone, she'd been helpless to stop it, and now no one else would help her do anything about it. When the child-services worker showed up to cart her off to an orphanage, it was the last straw, and she ran for it. By the time people realized someone should stop her, she was already out the door. She's been living on the streets ever since, teaming up if absolutely necessary but preferring to live on her own.

Takuya's in shock. He tries to console her, at the same time realizing how different their points of view are. He's loved Security because they did everything they could to protect his dad when he died, and she hates them because they abandoned hers. But even with all of that, it doesn't have to mean anything about the two of them. They were friends before, and maybe it's better this way, because they can get over what happened to them together. She isn't impressed, and to get over it, she returns to the duel, attacking him again.

But he's not afraid this time. Her first, strongest attack knocks him down like before, but he gets up and takes the second hit just the same... and realizes it didn't hurt at all. It was just a holographic bump, not an actual hit. They're both surprised, until they put it together - the only card that was really hurting him was her Synchro monster. Everything else was just Solid Vision, but because Takuya was afraid and beat-up, he'd perceived any jolt to a tender spot as real. This cuts the tension even further, realizing that Kazumi isn't a psychic at all - she just has a special card. They decide to finish their duel anyway, in the process testing this idea and confirming it (as well as destroying the monster).

With the duel over, they check each other and find neither got hurt _too_ badly, which Kazumi takes as an opportunity to punch Takuya in the arm and demand her roller skate back. They collapse laughing just as Saiga pulls up on his D-Wheel, drawn by all the noise. His scolding is cut off when Kazumi says Takuya hadn't been looking for her and hadn't been doing any Security-ish duties. They'd just found each other. He plays along, and the two beat-up kids go back with Saiga together.

Act 2: Ceasefire

Martha cries out when she sees Takuya beat up and bleeding, and even Shun and Micchan cluster around when they see him like that. She wants to tell him off, but first things first, so she hustles him off with Saiga to get cleaned up while she takes Kazumi aside, who isn't really injured but is still as worn-down and dirty as her street life usually leaves her. Kazumi's reluctant at first, but she and Takuya share a little smile, and she holds her head high as she goes off with Martha.

After the kids are cleaned up, Martha talks to Takuya separately, scolding him for breaking his promise, especially to do something that could have left him far more badly injured - or killed, if what he says about this card is true. (He hadn't wanted to tell her about the card, and he didn't do so at first, but the only other response would have been to let Martha keep thinking that Kazumi had beat him up.) When he insists it was for Kazumi, she says that doesn't change what he did. But there's a certain spark in her eyes that says she's quite aware why he did what he did, even though her words indicate he's not off the hook and he'll be answering for it soon enough.

But by then, dinner is served, and Martha and Takuya convince Kazumi to sit at the table for the first time. She hardly says anything, and the other kids have only ever known her to be standoffish, but they're civil enough to her. The environment of a dinner table is eventually enough for the other girls to bring her into their conversation, if only once or twice. When it's time to clean up, Martha quickly sends Takuya into the kitchen for clean-up while she and Kazumi talk, with the bowl of still-warm and still-fragrant leftovers between them. By the time Takuya comes back, it's been agreed - Kazumi will be staying with them, at least for a little while.

The next morning, he comes downstairs to find Kazumi and Mikage at breakfast together. It had taken a few minutes before the girl had learned that Mikage was also part of the Security Bureau, but by then, they had warmed up enough to each other that the shock didn't shake her away. She'd never met a female officer, and they shared a few laughs at the expense of Ushio and some of the other officers. Ushio himself was in the next room with Martha, and when she sees Takuya is also up, she brings the five of them together. She'd called the two to visit so they can finally get this whole mess figured out.

Kazumi's still very much on edge, but she sits down anyway. Bit by bit, she and Takuya explain that it wasn't her causing that damage - it was that card. Ushio still seems to hold her responsible, but Takuya calls it an accident - how was she supposed to know that a Duel Monsters card was dangerous? The officers are still skeptical, so they ask for the card so they can check up on this. Kazumi's response is that she wants to find out how that card could do such a thing, and she wants to know that before anything else happens. Ushio makes some kind of official-sounding promise (he has no idea how to gain or give that kind of information) and tells her again to hand over the card.

To his surprise, she says she doesn't have it. He doesn't believe her, but Takuya thinks she's telling the truth, and she adds that she gave it away but doesn't say where. Martha thinks back to after dinner, when Kazumi had been drawn into the general clusters of chatter, and then a bunch of kids had gone to bed all of a sudden. With a little effort, Martha is able to recall which kids were there, but she holds her tongue. Meanwhile, Takuya can sense that the adults aren't taking kindly to the concealment, and he quickly clarifies that Kazumi is able and willing to hand it over, but they have to have a deal. If the others help them, they'll get the card, no problem. Ushio looks to Martha to clear this all away, but she smiles and tells Ushio that, because the kids are so willing to keep their word, he should do his part right now and it'll all be settled.

Mikage's the one that answers. She places a speakerphone call to Jeager and calls in a favor ("Mikage! Thank you so much! Oh yes, my wife had a wonderful birthday, and she loved the jewelry, your advice was a lifesaver!"), saying that she knows the Securities have a file on the experiments with card manifestations, and she needs him to give her access to it. Jeager tries to divert her, saying he doesn't know what she's talking about, but she adds that one of the cards has been found and someone was nearly killed because of it. If Security isn't able to investigate the matter, and the other cards resurface... He freezes and tries to swallow his panic, and he says she'll be receiving the data and conclusions within ten minutes, but he draws the line at giving her the files that explain how to conduct the experiment.

Not until after she hangs up does it become apparent that she didn't really know about the experiment, but there were always rumors that the scientists were researching more realistic methods of holographic projection. This gossip combined with the description of this card gave her just enough ammunition to bluff Jeager into thinking the cat was out of the bag. He might not be the most open person ever, but he's able to recognize when there's a... _situation_ that needs to be taken care of. When she gets the file (at least it's encrypted with a key she and Jeager share - this is the Security Maintenance Bureau, after all), she reads through it and is able to piece together what happened, even though she doesn't know how the results were going to be used.

When various methods for projecting cards were being researched, a method was found that was able to manifest the cards so that their attacks produced real damage. Four freshly-drafted cards were pulled from the publication process and tested with the method. They were chosen for their variety in shape and capability. However, it was discovered that not only were the impacts real, but so were their effects, which was dangerous because they could cause psychological damage as well as physical. Funding and support for the project was promptly pulled, and the treated cards were to be destroyed. The files were buried, but apparently the reports of the cards being destroyed were false. The list of card names is included in the file - according to the attached photos, they're all Synchro monsters, and Rogue Raptor is one of them. Its effects are both for destroying cards, which is why it was able to smash up the architecture.

The kids don't recognize any of the other names, but they think all this is pretty wild. (Although they both shudder to think how close she came to managing a direct attack with that monster.) With Martha's permission, Kazumi leaves the room, and she comes back soon, giving the card to Mikage. Meanwhile, Mikage has run the names through the Security database - they have Seto Kaiba's old program for locating when and where a card has been played. It can also bring up records of the duels, but unless the duelist has his duel disk registered under his name, they can't tell who used it.

As it turns out, the other three cards have all been played, each with quite a gap between its first appearance and back when the experiment was shut down, and each has surfaced somewhere in Satellite. One hasn't appeared until a little over a week ago but has been used multiple times since, one appeared a few months ago but only appeared once, and the last reappeared three years ago, was used a couple of times and hasn't been seen since. This last one catches her and Ushio's eye not because of the deck it was used with, but because of the one it dueled against - Blackwings.

Immediately, Ushio realizes, "Three years ago... Pearson!" He gets up, saying they need to get back to the city. He and Mikage say their goodbyes, though he's muttering that they need to print out the photo of this card (a monster named Blood Mephist). As they turn to leave, Kazumi remarks in a more cheerful and joking manner that she's glad they could work it out, especially because she thought they wouldn't like her at all after all those duels they fought.

This stops the officers up short, and Ushio says there were no orders to duel her - they'd only wanted to question her and stop her from using psychic powers on people. She says, "Then who's that officer that kept finding me and saying he was gonna arrest me?" She describes a lanky guy who always kept his helmet on and said he was dueling her as a result of her crimes. He was riding a D-Wheel that seemed like a parallel model of a Security D-Wheel, and his deck had quite a few Security cards in it but lots of other cards too. This gets Ushio angry, thinking there's someone on the force who's abusing his power, and Mikage promises they'll get to the bottom of that one too.

Outside, Shun is making his way to Ichiro's house. Ichiro had invited him, Micchan and Takuya over, but Takuya was occupied, and Kazumi had cautioned Micchan to stay nearby (as he was the one she had slipped Rogue Raptor to). Bored of waiting, Shun agreed with Micchan that he would go over alone and the others could catch up when they could. Naturally, he gets about halfway to the house before his way is blocked by a figure who seems familiar. Then he recognizes the coat and smirk of Komada Daisuke, who invites Shun to duel him.

* * *

_And that's the rundown of Zero Rebirth. If you'd like to adopt it, by all means, speak up. I'm still eager to see folks who know how to combine old-school and new-school moves to defeat people who rely entirely on the latter. You'd be shocked how many anime-only cards there are out there that are actually inferior to cards that have been in print for years. (And as a parting note, this used to be called Satellite Rebirth. If you can figure out the pun that got me to change its name, you get a cookie.)_

* * *

[The following section used to be on my profile, but it's better off stashed here.]

About the suspended animation of Zero Rebirth

It ain't working. My first attempt at not piggybacking on the canon characters has gotten a Grade-A cricket-chirping dead response. I considered throwing out my plans for future chapters and taking my characters in a new direction. Then I realized that the whole foundation deserved to be taken apart.

So I'm just going to leave it up as a learning experience. Some might say, "We'll look back on this and laugh." In hindsight, this is kinda funny right now. Here are my lessons, in all their should-have-been-obvious splendor:

PRIMARY - A hook in the first chapter is _essential_. Readers will never go past the first chapter unless they've got a reason, so it's no good saving all the plot points and truly awesome moments for later.

SECONDARY - The 5D's fanbase happens to _like_ badass attractive teenagers, high-level Synchro monsters (especially dragons), shipping, and (believe or not) motorcycles. A 5D's story with a profound lack of all these things is not doing itself any favors.

_Footnote_ - If you don't use aforementioned teenagers, at least include _somebody_ that the fans recognize by name. For most folks, a cast made entirely of OCs & OC-Stand-ins will go over like a lead balloon.

-If you want drama, you need stamina. If subplots keep getting tied off in a chapter or two with nothing to replace them, then you haven't given the readers a reason to come back.

-To catch attention, try a little danger. Family squabbles and minor police warnings do not count as danger.

-Yes, those cards might be impressive for a ten-year-old in Satellite. But the readers left those behind years ago, and even within the 5D's world, Yusei is the only person who could say they're powerful and keep a straight face. (And don't give me that "saving it for later" line again.)

-Duels are not impressive when they have an average length of two turns per player.

- Life is not like Pokemon. Ten-year-olds can be sneaky - maybe even savvy - but never badass. Almost every dramatic/impressive skill belongs to adults... unless you're a Sue. Screw that.

-On the topic of Sues, bullies do not make social 180-degree turns after talking about their hobbies or family life with near-strangers for two minutes. Especially when the stranger is the person they were just bullying not even half an hour ago. (The trope is known as Defeat Means Friendship - common in anime, but I haven't mastered it... yet.)

-They also wouldn't cry when they get beaten. Not unless they're Oscar-worthy actors at pretending to be bullies. Which Ichiro isn't.

-When you're ten years old, you'll have a really hard time getting around a city of any size; you don't have a car, and those short legs are pretty slow for walking.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST - I need to have my own style. I was trying to mimic the source's style, and the result was a dry story. I don't want my style to be interchangeable with anyone else's - if it is, then I'm not giving anything to the reader. And for that matter, I wouldn't be doing anything for myself either.


End file.
